90 THE CONDOR VoL. VI less patient than in a cool forest of a northern zone. We were fortunate enough to .make the acquaintance of three species of Sula among the islets to the westward of the main Hawaiian Group; namely, Sula o'anops, Sula piscator, and Sula sula. All the accompanying photographs (which are accredited by our respective initials) were secured, however, on I,aysan Island, a small atoll about eight hundred miles northwest-by-west from Hon- olulu. A general description uf this wonderful bird metro- polis was published under the account of the man-o'-war bird, in the last issue of this magazine (p. 57)- In their actions boobies are less interesting than most tropical sea birds, being at best rather stolid crealures, much given to gazing at their own long faces. They are the sedgy slope facing the ocean, expostd to spray-ladeu winds and close to the booming .nrf. On the innersh,pes of the island, fac- ing the lagoon, the species is en- tirely absent, ing replaced by its somewhat smaller congener, & tot. The homes the masked gannets are not cr,,wded. colony-fashiou. but phlegmatic, unsentimental, burgomasters of the commun- ity, as different in all their ac- tions from the nervous terns or playful albatrosses, as per- sons of a similar temperament would be. On I,aysan, the masked or blue-faced booby (X. cyanops) lives only on the 3_ SULA CYANOPSFEEDING YOUNG are scattered here and there over the greensward, and one can see them from afar, because there is usually a circular patch of bare sand about each nest--provided the latter is among grass--in the center of which stands the omnipresent senti- nel bird. There is really no nesl at all. the two eggs being deposited on
