De THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
the circumstance, as Lieutenant Fraser fell in the Crimea, 
and McNish was, unfortunately, drowned at Gallipoli. The 
bird was a female specimen, measuring eight feet six inches 
from wing to wing. A strong easterly gale had been blow- 
ing for some days. One or two others were seen afterwards, 
but none of them were shot. 
Tropic Brrp (Phaéton ethereus.) Very common. These 
birds arrive regularly every year from the south in March 
and April. I observed them as early as the 10th March, in 
the year 1848, and until 25th September of the same year ; 
and again on 1st March, 1850, I saw eight on the north shore, 
near the light-house. I also observed one on the 19th No- 
vember, 1849, about twenty miles out at sea. They breed 
in holes in the rocks on the various islands, and _parti- 
cularly along the south shore, and Gurnet-head Rock, about 
the beginning of May. The parent birds sit so close that 
they allow themselves to be caught by the hand; they 
however show some fight, seizing your fingers in their 
powerful serrated bill, and occasionally biting very hard. 
The young birds are marked on the back and wings with 
transverse bracket-shaped bars of black or brown, but want- 
ing the two elongated centre tail feathers. It 1s very singu- 
lar that the young birds are never seen after they leave the 
holes in which they were reared, and I presume they at 
once proceed to sea with the parent birds. The Phaéton 
lays one egg only, of a chocolate colour, with large brown 
patches, and spotted with black and brown, exactly re- 
sembling in colour the egg of our British kestril, only 
larger, and of a more oval form. 
RosEaATE TERN (Sterna Dougall). This was the first 
bird new to the Bermuda lst, that I found in the Islands. 
