168. SULA PISCATOR (Linnæus).
RED-LEGGED BOOBY.
- Pelecanus piscator Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 134.
- Sula piscator Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 432; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 39.
- Sula piscatrix Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 237; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 210.
Mindanao (Steere Exp.). Oceania, southern Atlantic, Indian and Australian seas.
“Adult.—General color pure white; primaries, primary-coverts, outer webs and tips of secondaries, and secondary-coverts hoary gray, inclining to blackish on outermost quills in freshly molted birds, and to blackish in worn specimens; chin and upper part of throat naked, the feathers ending in a straight line across throat; tail composed of fourteen, or sometimes sixteen feathers. Iris gray; bill grayish blue, shading into pink or reddish toward the base; naked skin round eye blue; gular pouch dark slate or black; legs and feet vermilion, red or dark pink, almost magenta.
“Adult male.—Length, about 750; culmen from feathers on forehead, 89; wing, 394; tail, 10 to 28; tarsus, 35.
“Adult female.—Length, about 710; culmen from feathers on forehead, 81 to 88; wing, 373 to 375; tail, 208 to 210; tarsus, 35.
“Immature in first plumage.—Entire plumage above and below brown, lighter on breast and belly; primaries and secondaries and their coverts like those of the adult, but the inner webs of the secondaries black. Cutting edges of the mandible sometimes serrated, and the inner margin of the middle claw pectinate. Bill bluish pink, the latter predominating toward the base; naked skin round eye dark leaden hue; gular pouch flesh-colored.
“More adult specimens (perhaps in the plumage of the second year) head, neck, and under parts white; back, wings, and tail brown as in the immature; middle tail-feathers dark, brownish gray toward the base, shading into white toward the extremity.
“A still more adult bird has a large amount of white or partially white feathers mixed with the brown of the back and wings.