AUSTRALIAN BROWN GANNET (BOOBY). 
J. J. Walker, in the Ibis 1892, p. 257, writing on the Bird Life of Adele 
Island, North-west Australia, recorded : 
“ On the beach just above the line of the highest tides, and at intervals 
of a few yards apart, were little communities of two species of Gannets — ^the 
widely-distributed ‘ Booby,’ Sula fiber Linn., and the fine dark brown and 
white 8. cyano'ps Sundevall — engaged in incubation. The two species usually 
kept separate, though occasionally one or two of one kind would be found 
in a group of the other, apparently not regarded as intruders. Both birds 
made very similar rude nests of seaweed, about two feet in diameter and not 
exceeding three or four inches in height, but in many cases the eggs were 
deposited in a mere slight hollow in the sand, without any attempt at a 
lining. Two eggs were the usual number laid by each bird, those of the 
8. cyanops by lis inch) being as a rule rather larger and more 
elongate in outline than those of the 8. fiber ^ the average measurement of 
which was 2-h by inch. Both were of the same greenish-white colour, 
with a dense white chalky coating. Very many of the nests contained 
young birds — some hatched only that morning and perfectly naked ; others 
were half the size of the adults, and densely clothed with pure white down. 
The behaviour of the two birds, when approached, was strikingly different — 
the 8. fiber only giving vent to a feeble croak or two, and then scuttling 
awkwardly off the nest and away out to sea, returning however in a few 
minutes ; the 8. cyanops, on the other hand, made a fierce resistance, biting 
savagely at a stick presented to it, and uttering a succession of loud harsh 
croaks, or rather barks, while the bird had to be fairly shoved off the nest 
before it would quit its eggs or young. All the time hundreds of the Gamiets, 
chiefly of the brown species, were on the wing, sailing overhead with the 
quietness of Owls, and often coming within two or three yards of me as I 
strolled along the beach.” 
The bird figured and described is a male, and was collected on Bed out 
Island, Mid-west Australia, on the 22nd May, 1901. , 
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