July, I9O 4 I THE CONDOR 93 ward or at the sky, as if on the lookout for winged marauders. Frequently they utter a hoarse, strident cry. When the old birds exchange places, which is happen- ing in figures e and 6, one slips off the nestling and the other immediately takes its place. The young birds when bereft of protection for a moment, assume very outlandish postu?es, as shown in Fig. e. The bird to the right is strutting off with the characteristic ambling swagger. He bit the finger. off the photographer's glove a moment later--amiable fellow! In this photograph the tollpalmate feet show ad- mirably. Note also the absence of nostrils. The red-footed booby, Sula piscalor, unlike the foregoing species. always builds in bushes, so far as my experience goes, never on the ground. At Laysan it is found in coloniesof scattered individuals on the inner slopes of the island. The nest is very simple, scarcely more than a slightly bollowed platform composed 7. RED-FOOTED BOOBY. SULA PISCATOR, ON NEST of twigs and sticks, placed on the top of buslies, which over large areas on the is- land. The birds place a few fresh leaves about the newly laid egg. The old birds take turns in brooding, and occasionally one is seen perched ou the side of the nest while the other is sitting. Whenever we approached a nest to take a photo- graph, the occupant would ruffle its feathers as shown in the frontispiece, and if we came too near would take a chance poke at us with its beak, which much re- sembles an animated marlin spike. The old birds are very handsome, despite their vicious yellow eyes, as the white plumage is set off bv bright blue skin about the bill, and by coral-red feet. Most of the nests contained a single white egg, and we saw only a few downy white young, recently hatched. We did not observe this species feeding its young, but one old bird, which was
