2G AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN. 



Iris bright yellow. Plumage pure white, remigcs and greater wing-coverts dark blackish 

 brown." Tail dark sooty brown, the central tail-feathers whitish at their basal part. 

 Legs and feet deep brown in skin, a yellowish brown in life. Total length about 

 27 inches, wing 17 to 18, tail 8, cnlmen 1 to 11, tarsus 23, middle toe with claw 

 3'9 to 4. 



One specimen (not quite adult) has the back streaked with brown and the wing-coverts 

 spotted with brown. 



The first plumage is quite different from that of the adult bird. Head and neck above, and 

 upper parts generally, dark greyish brown ; lower neck and entire lower surface white, 

 flank streaked with brown ; back and rump streaked with white. The iris is dark 

 brown. 



The nestling is covered with white down. 



The eggs are two in number, ovate or elongate ovate, covered with a dull white chalky 

 crust, and beneath this chalky covering very pale bluish ; they measure 2*8 1 by 2 inches, 

 2 6 by 1-8, and 2 55 by 1-88. 



This Gannet frequented all the islands visited, but not in great numbers. There is a large 

 rookery on Trench Erigate Island, but only a few were observed on Laysan, where they 

 invariably frequented the shore and never went inland. Although Palmer always found two 

 eggs, he never saw more than one young in a nest, if such a term may be used, for they build 

 no nest whatever, but simply deposit their eggs on the sand. The old birds have a harsh 

 note, similar to the quacking of a Duck. When sitting on its eggs or with the young, the 

 old bird is easily killed with a short stick, for they only bite at the stick or hand and never 

 attempt to fly off. 



The birds and eggs described above are from French Erigate and Brooks or Midway 

 Islands. 



(On the Plate representing the breeding-place of this species on Laysan Island it has 

 been named Sula australis by mistake.) 



