115. Sula leucogastra. 30 in.
This species, commonly called the Brown Booby, is brownish black with the exception of a white breast and underparts. Young birds are entirely brownish black; bill and feet greenish yellow; eye white. They are one of the most abundant breeding birds upon many of the Bahaman and West Indian Islands. They have great powers of flight and dart about with the speed of arrows, carrying their long bill and neck at full length before them. They are awkward walkers, and, owing to their buoyancy, it is difficult for them to swim under water, but they are unerring in securing their prey by plunging upon it from a height.
Nest.—They breed in colonies of thousands, laying their two eggs upon the bare sand or rocks. The eggs are chalky white, more or less nest stained (2.40 × 1.60).
Range.—Breeds in the Bahamas and West Indies; wanders north casually to the Carolinas.
GANNET
117. Sula bassana. 35 in.
Primaries black; rest of plumage white; back of head tinged with straw color; bill and feet bluish black. Young grayish or brownish black, mottled above and streaked below. This species is the largest and most northerly distributed of the gannet family. Thousands upon thousands of them breed upon high rocky islets off the British coast. The only known nesting places used by them in this country are Bird Rock and Bonaventure Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; in these places they nest by thousands, their rough piles of seaweed touching each other in long rows on the narrow ledges.
Notes.—A harsh “gor-r-r-rok.” (Chapman).
Range.—North Atlantic, breeding, on the American side, only on islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Winters along the whole United States coast, floating in large flocks out at sea, and rarely coming on land.