_Pelecanus Plotus_ Forster, Descr. Anim., ed. Licht., 1844, p. 278.
(Type locality Near New Caledonia.)
_Dysporus sula_ Hartlaub, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867 (1868), p.
831 (Pelew); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868,
pp. 9, 118 (Pelew); _idem_, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 90
(Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 6, 47
(Palau); _idem_, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 577 (Ruk);
Hartert, Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 11 (Ruk).
_Sula fusca_ Finsch, Ibis, 1880, p. 218 (Taluit).
_Sula leucogastra_ Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 423
(Pelew, Carolinis); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus.
Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 72 (Pelew, Ruk, Marshalls);
Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 8, 1896, p. 63
(Palaos, Mariannes, Marshalls, Carolines); Hartert, Novit. Zool.,
5, 1898, p. 68 (Marianne).
_Sula sula_ Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds British Museum, 26, 1898, p.
436 (Asuncion, Pelew); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus.,
1, 1901, p. 24 (Guam); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 66 (Mariannas);
_idem_, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 267 (Guam); _idem_, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p. 80 (Guam); _idem_, Guam, 1912, p. 19
(Guam); Prowazek, Die deutschen Marianen, 1913, p. 100 (Marianen);
Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 50 (Marianne); Cox,
Island of Guam, 1917, p. 22 (Guam); Uchida, Annot. Zool. Japon., 9,
1918, pp. 487, 493 (Sea off Mariana Islands).
_Sula leucogaster plotus_ Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia,
1922, p. 34 (Pelew, Ruk, West Faiu, Uracas, Saipan, Marshalls);
Yamashina, Tori, 7, 1932, p. 407 (Medinilla); Hand-list Japanese
Birds, rev., 1932, p. 185 (Uracas, Pagan, Medinilla, Saipan, Truk,
West Fayu, Grimes, Marshalls); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed.,
1942, p. 208 (Uracas, Pagan, Medinilla, Saipan, Grimes, West Fayu,
Truk, Marshalls); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15,
1948, p. 41 (Rota, Guam, Truk).
_Geographic range._--Throughout tropical Pacific area and south to
Australia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Asuncion, Uracas, Pagan,
Medinilla, Saipan, Rota, Guam; Palau Islands--exact locality
unknown; Caroline Islands--Grimes, West Fayu, Truk, Kusaie;
Marshall Islands--Jaluit, Eniwetok.
_Characters._--Adult: A heavy sea bird dark brown except for white
lower breast, belly, under tail, and auxillars; bill heavy and
light bluish; face, gular pouch and feet greenish yellow.
Immature: Resembles adult, but lower breast, belly and under tail
mottled with brown; feet light yellow.
_Measurements._--Two adult males (Rota, Guam) measure: wing 386,
408; tail 194; exposed culmen 93, 98; tarsus 45, 49; two adult
females (Rota, Kusaie): wing 380, 487; tail 193, 217; exposed
culmen 94, 99; tarsus 45, 50.
_Weights._--The author (1948:41) records one immature female from
Rota weighing 1042 grams.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 6 (3 males, 3 females), as
follows: Mariana Islands, USNM--Rota, 3 (Oct. 24); AMNH--Guam, 1
(July 23); Palau Islands, AMNH--exact locality not given, 1 (Dec.
1); Caroline Islands, AMNH--Kusaie, 1 (April 19).
_Nesting._--Few records have been published concerning nesting of
the Brown Booby in Micronesia. Yamashina (1932a: 407) reports the
taking of 12 eggs at Medinilla in the Mariana Islands on February
19, 1931. At Palau, Coultas (field notes) obtained reports that the
bird nests at Kiangat, a small islet north of Babelthuap.
_Parasites._--Uchida (1918:487, 493) obtained bird lice
(Mallophaga), _Menopan brevipalpe_ and _Lipeurus potens_, from the
Brown Booby from the "sea off Mariana Islands."
_Remarks._--The Brown Booby has not been found abundantly by observers
in the Micronesian area. Coultas and Kubary, who spent considerable time
in this region, observed the bird at only a few of the islands. Probably
the bird does not nest abundantly in Micronesia, although small colonies
may be present. The NAMRU2 party observed a flock of twelve brown
boobies on high cliffs at Taipingot Peninsula at Rota on October 24,
1945. Birds were seen also at Guam in May, July and November, 1945, and
at Truk in December of the same year. Coultas obtained a single specimen
at Kusaie; the natives told him that it was not a resident of the
island. The writer observed several Brown Boobies approximately twenty
miles east of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands on January 7, 1945. These
were in the company of other sea birds.
=Phalacrocorax melanoleucus melanoleucus= (Vieillot)