206 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



puff. Tliey would send any member of the fair sex into 

 ecstacies. How these young birds manage to keep them- 

 selves from falling from their clumsily made homes, 

 when the old birds come lumbering on to the nests with 

 a supply of newly-caught fish, is a mystery. Perhaps 

 they are able to hang on with the sharp little claws which 

 protrude from the ends of their webbed feet. 



It takes several years for a gannet of this species to 

 attain to fully adult plumage. At this period it appears 

 in a dress of dazzUng white, with black wing-tips, brick- 

 red legs and feet, and a gorgeously coloured bill of opaline 

 blue. Round each eye is a bare space, coloured yellowish- 

 green, while the low^er lids are tinged with cobalt-blue. 

 What becomes of these old birds ha^s always been another 

 mystery for us, for in comparison with the " middle-aged " 

 community they are extremely scarce. These " middle 

 aged " birds are all brown, with white tails and rump. 

 Immature birds or birds of the year are entirely brown 

 or drab. They are the boys and girls of the race and have 

 no domestic concerns. 



The booby gannets {S. sula) we found for the most part 

 in the lower parts of the island, building from almost 

 sea-level up to a height of perhaps two or three hundred 

 feet. They invariabty nested upon the ground, among 

 the rough vegetation of coarse grass and dwarf cactus, 

 or on the bare rocks. The depression in the ground was 

 lined with a few scanty twigs or bits of grass. Sometimes 

 they contained two eggs, but the second had probably 

 been officiously laid there by another bird, either too lazy 

 or too bewildered to find its own nest. 



The head, throat, upper-part of the breast and entire 

 back of this gannet, are a beautiful chocolate-brown, the 

 imder-parts being white. The legs and feet are bright 

 €hrome-yellow, the bill is yellow at the base and shades off 

 towards the tip into bluish grey. The iris, or so called 

 pupil of the eye, is pale grey; while the eyelids are 

 edged with bright blue.* 



*Notes of all these colours were taken by the author on the spot. 



