PLOTUS — SULA. 363' 



Genus PLOTUS, Linnceus. 



PLOTUS NOV^-HOLLANDI^, Gould. 

 Ne-w Holland Darter. 

 Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 657, p. 496. 



This bird is widely dispersed over the Australian continent, it 

 frequents rivers and lagoons where it obtains its food, consisting 

 chiefly of fish. The nest is built of sticks and twigs often placed 

 on a branch of a tree overhanging the water, and usually contains 

 three or four eggs of a pale bluish- white, often thickly covered 

 with lime like to those of Graculus, and Podiceps. An average 

 specimen measures 2-35 x 1'55 inch. 



Hob. Port Darwin and Tort Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, 

 Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 

 Dawson River, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New 

 South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South Australia, and the 

 South Coast New Guinea. {Ramsay.) 



Genus SULA, Brisson. 



SULA SERRATOR, Banks. 



(S. australis, Gould.) 



The Australian Gannet. 



Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 661, p. 504. 



This species ranges over the seas of the eastern and southern 

 portions of the continent of Australia, the islands of Bass's Straits 

 and the coast of Tasmania. The nest is built upon the ground 

 and is composed of twigs and dried marine debris, it usually 

 contams two eggs, elongated in form, of a pale bluish-white colour 

 with a rough coating of lime. An average specimen taken on one 

 of the islands off the Tasmanian coast, measures as follows : — 

 length 3-05 inches, breadth 1-85 inch. 



Sab. Port Denison, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence 

 Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, 

 Tasmania, West and South-West Australia. {Ramsay.) 



