298 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
Distribution.—There is one specimen in the Colombo 
Museum, which came from the coast of the North-Western 
Province. The bird has occasionally been obtained off the 
west coast of India, and, like the former species, ranges 
throughout tropical seas. 
Family PHAETHONTIDA. 
Genus Phaethon. 
Tropic Birds. 
The Tropic Birds are the most graceful members of the 
order. In size and appearance they are not unlike the larger 
species of Terns. 
The plumage is satiny and mainly white ; the young are 
barred on the back with black, and in one Indian species the 
barring persists in the adult plumage. 
The bill is stout, gently curved, and pointed ; the nostrils 
are linear, and placed near the base of the bill. The wings 
are very long, and the first primary is the longest. The two 
middle tail feathers are produced into long narrow streamers, 
greatly exceeding the other tail feathers, which are short. 
The birds spend a great part of their time far out at sea, and 
breed on oceanic islands, where they nest in holes in the 
rocks, laying a single egg of reddish-white with brownish-purple 
markings. Four or five species are known, ranging over the 
tropical ocean. Two are said to have occurred in Ceylon. 
Rough Key to Ceylon Species. 
A.—Fourteen tail feathers; bill 3°25; back barred in 
adults, as well as in young birds. 
Phaethon indicus (Short-tailed Tropic Bird). 
B.—Twelve tail feathers ; bill 2°80 ; back white in adults. 
P. flavirostris (White Tropic Bird). 
_Puartuon tnpicus (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 349; Legge, p. 1173). 
The Short-tailed Tropic Bird. 
Description.—Plumage satiny white, barred on the upper 
parts from the neck to the tail coverts with black ; the wing 
coverts and tertiaries are almost wholly black. There is a 
