THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
grow almost to fuU size before acquiring any feathers, the first to appear being 
the primaries, then the scapulars and feathers of head, and secondaries, with 
the tail-feathers, this first feathering being a brownish-grey. This colour 
is general on head, back and wings, with dirty-greyish breast, abdomen, 
and under-surface of wings when they fly. The young birds hatched out 
often show great disparity in size, one bemg hatched some days later than 
the other. This usually results in only one surviving, as, in proportion to 
the number of nests containing a pair of eggs, very few seem to rear more 
than a single young one. The naked skin on the face of the adult Brown 
Gannet shows a good deal of variation in colour, some being of a greenish- 
yellow, others of quite a blue colour.” 
The following year McLennan again visited Raine Island on account of 
Dr. MacgiUivray, and the latter gave the results in the EmUf Vol. XIII., 
p. 148, 1914. 
“ Mr. McLennan visited Raine Island early in July, 1911, and found 
this Gannet scattered all over the island, but only eight nests contained 
two eggs each, several contained one egg, and there were no young birds. 
Evidently the birds had only started nesting.” 
On 27th July, 1911, he visited Bramble Cay, of which visit he writes as 
follows : “ When at Darnley Island we heard that the natives and South Sea 
Islanders from there and from Murray Island were in the habit of paying 
weekly visits to Bramble Cay for the purpose of getting eggs and birds for food 
during the breeding-season, and that they brought them away in boat 
loads: also that a cutter had set out for Raine Island about the same 
time as ourselves, but had to put back on account of bad weather, 
and that three boats had just left Murray Island for Raine Island. At 
Bramble Cay I found only two nests of the Brown Gannet containing 
two eggs, and three containing one egg, five nests with one young bird in 
each, and dozens of nests from which eggs had been taken. I also saw 
a great pile of skins near a heap of ashes, where the blacks had been 
having a feast.” 
I recently separated the West Australian bird, but here suppress it and 
only recognise the fact that Australian birds differ from Atlantic specimens 
in the depth of the coloration of the upper surface and in their superior 
size throughout. 
The name given by Forster to a specimen killed off New Caledonia 
is the oldest one available and therefore comes into use. 
The following account is worthy of reproduction, but the identity of 
the birds is uncertain : apparently Walker’s S. cyanops is the present species 
and his S, fiber something else, not as generally synonymized. 
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