Plate CCCXXVI. Adult Male, and Young.
Adult with the bill pale bluish-grey, tinged with green towards the
base; bare space about the eye, lines on the bill and gular membrane
blackish-blue; tarsi, toes, and webs, brownish-black, the scutella
light greenish-blue, claws greyish-white; general colour of plumage
white; upper part of head and hind neck buff-coloured; primary quills
brownish-black, their shafts white toward the base. Young at first
covered with very soft white down; when fully fledged, with the bill
light greyish-brown, the bare space around the eye pale greyish-blue;
feet dusky, the narrow bands of scutella pale greyish-blue; head,
neck, and upper parts, chocolate-brown, each feather with a terminal
narrow triangular white spot; lower parts greyish-white, spotted with
greyish-brown, each feather having a broad terminal margin of that
colour; quills and tail-feathers brownish-black.
_Adult_, 40-1/2, 75. _Young_ fledged, 38, 72.
Ranges southward off the coast at all seasons as far as the Gulf of
Mexico. Breeds on rocks on the Gulf of St Lawrence, and off the coast
of Labrador. Abundant. Migratory.
Sula bassana, Bonap. Syn. p. 408.
Gannet, Sula bassana, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 495.
Common Gannet, Sula bassana, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 222.