180 
GANNETS 
strike at one viciously rather than take wing. It feeds on squids and 
fish, which, like other birds of its genus, it catches by diving. 
1908. Chapman, F. M., Papers from Tortugas Lab. of Carnegie Inst., 
II, 141-149; Camps and Cruises, 208-217 (nesting). 
The Blue-faced Booby ( 11 4 . Sula cyanops) a southern species, breeds 
as far north as the Bahamas and is of casual occurrence off southern Florida, 
but there are no recent records of its appearance there. 
116. Sula piscator (Linn.). Red-footed Booby. Wing-quills more or 
less frosty. Ads. — White more or less tinged with straw; wings hoary fuscous, 
their coverts and inner tertials like back; face blue, pouch slate, feet red. 
Young birds are nearly uniform brown, and in a later plumage the head, 
neck and underparts are white, but at all times the wing-quills are frosty. 
L., 29 00; W., 15*00; B., 3*30. 
Range. — Coasts and islands of tropical and subtropical seas, from Fla. 
and w. Mex. southward. 
Bangs records the occurrence of great numbers of white, black- 
winged Boobies, doubtless this species, off the east Florida coast, 
opposite Micco, on February 12, 1905 {Auk, XIX, p.395). The species 
is not known to nest nearer Florida than the Cayman islands south of 
Cuba, but I have elsewhere given reasons for believing that the Booby 
recorded by Audubon as nesting in the Tortugas was this species and 
not Sula leucogastra (see Papers from Tortugas Lab. of Carnegie Inst., 
1908, II, p. 144). 
117. Sula bassana ( Linn .). Gannet. (Figs. 27, 29.) Ads. — White, 
head and neck tinged with pale straw-yellow; primaries fuscous. Im . — ■ 
Throat and upperparts, including wing-coverts, dark grayish brown, each 
feather with a small white wedge-shaped spot; breast and belly white, 
margined with grayish brown. L., 35*00; W., 19*00; T., 9*50; B., 4*00. 
Range. — Coasts of N. Atlantic. Breeds on Bird Rock and Bonaventure 
Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on islets off British Islands; winters 
from N. C. coast s. to Gulf of Mex., and on coasts of n. Africa, Madeira, 
and the Canaries; occurs off e. U. S. in migration; casual n. to Greenland; 
accidental in Ind. and Ont. 
Long Island, common T. V., x\4ch. 23-May 9; Oct. 5-Dec. 5. 
Nest, of seaweed on rocky cliffs. Egg, 1, pale bluish white, overlaid by 
a chalky deposit, more or less soiled and stained, 3*20 x 1*90. Date, Bird 
Rock, Que., May 5. 
The distribution of this, the only boreal member of its family, 
indicates that at one time it was found even farther north than it is 
at present, and that through a climatic change the more northern 
birds were either exterminated or forced southward, leaving only the 
widely separated existing colonies — two in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
and about a dozen off the northern shores of the British Islands. 
They reach their American nesting-grounds early in April, and a 
month later are massed in snowy banks on the broader ledges of the 
precipitous cliffs, laying or incubating. Where they are not frequently 
disturbed, they are so tame that they can be touched as they sit on 
their nests. Their call is a harsh gor-r-r-r-rok. 
During their migrations they are found usually well off the coast, 
