November, 1932 The Queensland Naturalist 55 
were so far advanced that they could fly about. It was 
only on rare occasions that a broody bird still sat on eggs 
or was mothering very young chicks, nearly all the young 
birds had passed the white downy stage and were devel- 
oping brown feathers. At this stage of the chicks the 
parent gannets are not quite so tame and evidently less 
protection is given, perhaps the young birds are thought 
to be able to defend themselves. Often after a little teas- 
ing the young bird cuughs up a few half digested fishes. 
This is offered as a bribe. The young bird seems to think 
the intruder is hungry and will then be satisfied and, leave 
the poor little helpless chick in peace. On my previous 
visit the young gannets! were less advanced and one of the 
parents would seldom fly away, unless hurriedly sur- 
prised. It was often possible to advance within five feet. 
In many cases two eggs are laid and it seems that 
both are hatched. However, I never saw two young birds 
grown to full downy stage in one nest. I watched some 
nests Avbere two little chicks were deserted by the parent 
when I approached too close, then one of the twins, which 
happened to be the bigger one, would peck mercilessly at 
the smaller nest-mate. I am inclined to think that the 
weakest is always murdered, which would account for only 
one being reared. On one occasion, however, I noted two 
half-grown ones in a nest ; these were of even size and 
would not fight even when I provoked them to anger. 
It seems strange that Nature is so wasteful and even 
cruel, to give life and part protection to perhaps 40 per 
cent, of its offspring which a few days later is doomed to 
be killed and perhaps eaten by their own species. The 
eggs are laid on the ground and often without any pre- 
paration to make a nest. The Brown Gannet is about the 
size of a large duck, a good clean looking bird, rich brown 
back and wings with a white abdomen and white lower 
breast. 
Like all other seabirds they seem always hungry, and 
as there are thousands of gannets and their young, it re- 
quires a great number of fish to satisfy their appetite. 
When 1 visited Lady Musgrave Island four years ago 
there was no undergrowth. All the trees were stripped 
of leaves up to a height that the introduced goats could 
reach. There were about 300 goats living on the island 
of 50 acres. The ground was quite bare, everything 
edible was taken by the goats. Even the great numbers 
of white-capped-Noddies (Anous minutus) that build 
their nests in trees from old leaves, etc., could not find 
nest building material. During the interval the vegeta- 
tion has greatly changed. A party of hunting men found 
pleasure in killing the goats and it is remarkable how 
