THE TROPIC BIRD.' 



The Tropic Birds, so well known to navigators, form a'geuus distinguished at once by 

 the two long slender tail-feathers. Their length of wing, and comparatively feeble foot, 

 proclaim them formed for flight, and accordingly they disport in the air far out at sea, 

 swift and untired. They rarely repair to the land for any length of time, and \\hen 

 there, at the period of nidification, perch on rocks and trees. 



Their habitual domicile in the Torrid Zone does not separate them from tlie land ; and 

 they can reach, as they do nearly every night, the isles and lofty rocks that serve them 

 as a place of refuge. M. Lesson, however, so often met with them on sea-tracts en- 

 tirely devoid of land, and heard them so often above his head in the calm and fine 

 tropical niglits, that he thinks they should be considered as oceanic birds. 



The Pliaeton Etherim is about the size of a partridge, and has very long wings. 



Phai'toii F.thc'vius. 



