SULA FUSCA, 
Brown Gannet. 
Briss. 
Sulafusca, Briss. Orn., tom. vi, p. 499. tab. 43. fig. 1. — Id. 8vo, tom. ii. p. 491. — Vieill. Gal. des Ois., tom. ii. 
pi. 277. — Bonap. Syn. Birds of Am., p. 408. — Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 500. — Aud. Birds of Am. vol. iii. 
pi. 207 ; Orn. Bio., vol. iii. p. 63 ; Syn. Birds of Am., p. 310. — Bonap. List of Eur. and Am. Birds, 
p. 60. 
Brown Booby, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. vi. p. 613. — lb. Gen. Hist., vol. x. p. 441. 
Sula Brasiliensis, Spix, Av. Sp. Nov., tom. ii. tab. cvii. p. 84. 
Sula fiber, List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll., part iii. p. 183. 
Pelecanus fiber, Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 218. — Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 579. — Lath. Ind. Orn., 
vol. ii. p. 893. — Catesby’s Car., vol. i. pi. 87. p. 87. — Bonn, et Vieill. Ency. Meth. Orn., parti, p. 48. 
pi. 16. fig. 2. 
Sula, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 218. 
plotus, Forst. Icon. Ined. 108 ? 
Mar-ga, Aborigines of Port Essington. 
Booby, of the Colonists. 
The Gannet figured in the accompanying Plate, which may perhaps be identical with the Pelecatius fiber of 
Linnaeus, is abundantly dispersed round the northern shores of the Australian continent ; I have specimens 
killed within the harbour at Port Essington, and from Haines Island in Torres’ Straits, where it breeds in 
considerable numbers. 
The plumage of the two sexes is so precisely similar that it is utterly impossible to distinguish them by 
external observation ; it is true that the colouring of the feet, face and other soft parts is not always alike, 
hut this difference I believe to be the result of age, rather than of a difference in sex ; and if this opinion 
be correct, the bright yellow-coloured feet are indicative of the bird being fully adult, and the olive-brown 
of its being immature. 
In its habits, manners, mode of life, and in the nature of its food, this species resembles the other mem- 
bers of the genus. 
Head, neck, breast, all the upper surface, wings and tail dark cho’colate-brown ; under surface pure 
white, separated from the brown of the breast by a sharply defined line ; irides very pale yellow ; bill and 
orbits primrose-yellow, blotched before and beneath the eye with bluish ; eyelash light ash-grey ; legs and 
feet pale yellow. 
The figures represent adult birds rather less than the natural size. 
