go 
THE CONDOR 
VOL. VI 
less patient than in a cool forest of a northern zone. We were fortunate enough to 
make the acciuaintance of three species of Sula among the islets to the westward 
of the main Hawaiian Group: namely. Si//a cyanops, Sula piscator, and Sulu sula. 
All the accompanying photographs (which are accredited by our respective initials) 
were secured, however, on 
Laysan Island, a small atoll 
about eight hundred miles 
northwest-by-west from Hon- 
olulu. A general description 
of this wonderful bird metro- 
polis was published under 
the account of the man-o’-war 
bird, in the last issue of this 
magazine (p. 57). 
In their actions boobies are 
less interesting than most 
tropical sea birds, being at 
best rather stolid creatures, 
much given to gazing at their 
own long faces. They are the 
phlegmatic, unsentimental, 
burgomasters of the commun- 
ity, as different in all their ac- 
tions from the nervous terns 
or playful albatrosses, as per- 
sons of a similar temperament 
would be. On Laysan, the 
masked or blue-faced booby 
(A. cyanops) lives only on the 
sedgy slope facing 
the ocean, cxpostd 
to s p r a y-1 a d e n 
winds and close' to 
the booming surf. 
On the inner slopes 
of the island, fac- 
ing the lagoon, 
the species is en- 
tirely absent, be- 
ing replaced by its 
somewhat smaller 
congener, S. pisca- 
tor. The homes of 
the masked gannets 
are not crowded, 
colony-fashion, but 
are scattered here and there over the greensward, and one can see them from afar, 
because there is usually a circular patch of bare sand about each nest — provided 
the latter is among grass — in the center of which .stands the omnipresent senti- 
nel bird. There is really no nest at all, the two eggs being deposited on 
SULA CYANOPS FEEDSNG YOUNG 
