316 
Mr. P. R. Lowe on Birds collected 
On the second morning of our stay at the island we saw a 
flock of quite a thousand, flying in a dense and compact 
mass. They were evidently following a shoal of fish, which 
occasionally rose to the surface, and as they watched the fish 
below their movements appeared to be actuated by a single 
will or volition, so that they dipped or rose or inclined to 
the right or left as if at the word of command of a single 
individual. Through all their movements they kept the 
closest order, and when from time to time they dived 
the whole flock fell plumb to the water as one bird, the sea 
being lashed and churned to white foam over a very circum¬ 
scribed area in a most remarkable manner. 
A curious thing which we noticed was that occasionally 
the whole compact flock made a sort of feint at the water, 
and then with one accord turned again to regain their 
former level of flight, as if the shoal of fish had been sighted 
but the birds realised in the middle of their dive that 
their prey were too deep. 
I have watched many thousands of Gannets of different 
species fishing, but have never seen them hunt together 
in this way before. As a rule, where numbers are fishing 
together, each bird acts independently; but this flock, 
which consisted entirely, so far as I could make out, of 
examples of Sul a sula , acted in a unison as perfect as that 
exhibited by a flock of Starlings. 
Sula piscator (Linn.). 
This Gannet was also breeding on the smaller islands of 
the group. It was not present in such numbers as S. sula. 
Examples of all three stages of plumage were noticed. 
Most of the nests belonged to individuals in the white¬ 
tailed and brown-bodied stage of plumage. Birds in the 
wholly brown stage do not breed, being apparently too 
young. Birds in the fully adult white plumage are, in com¬ 
parison with birds in the middle stage of plumage, quite rare. 
This species invariably makes its nest in low trees, either 
mangrove or sea-grape. 
