Burckhalter 
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LSlf 19 - June ’67 Nest descriptions of Red-footed Booby - 
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On b June 1967 * it was ray intention to describe the nests and nesting 
materials of the Red-footed. Booby ( Sula sula ) on Lieianski Island. By' 
walking around the inner exterior of the island, where most red-foots 
nested, I selected one hundred nests at random for. examination, fifty on 
the east side. Though my major interest was nesting materials, I also 
. measured nest heights and recorded age of young. Unfortunately I did not 
take size measurements of each nest (width and depth}, nor did X record 
the ages of chicks in accord with their individual nest height and site 
locations. Perhaps-by recording such data, it could have been possible 
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to determine sites selected by the earliest nesters, i,e., large chicks 
would indicate first chosen sites. 
r ed-foots were found to be nesting in either sma.il. sparsely 
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populated colonies, in scattered groups of two to four nests per large 
bush* or singly in smaller bushes. All nests examined ranged in height 
from one to six feet above the ground* 80 percent of which were from 
two to three feet high. These nests were without exception found to be 
constructed in Scaevola, in places where branches forked out to provide 
level bases for foundations on which large sticks and twigs of Scaevola 
were placed for the basal portions of nests. Aside from Scaevola,, 
Tribulus and Cucerbus were the only other noted materials used by the 
red-foots. Available and abundant were Erograstis, Ipomea , and Boerhavia, 
but none of these were used in the nests studied. It appeared that, there 
was a definite selectivity of nesting materials. Perhaps Erograstis, 
Ipomea, and Boerhavia were not selected because they were not as sturdy 
' as Scaevola, and perhaps materials as Tribulus and Cucerbus were more 
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