280 



DUCKS, GEESE, SWANS, AND PELICANS. 



well-defined and purely geographical group, their homes being 

 in rocky islands, to which they usually return every night. 

 Nevertheless, he frequently met with them in sea-tracks far from 

 any land, possibly they having been swept, by the sudden squalls 

 and hurricanes so frequent in equatorial seas, beyond their natural 

 limits. 



The Common Tropic Bird, Phaeton cethereus, seems to confine 

 itself, according to this writer, to the Atlantic Ocean, stopping on 

 the confines of the Indian Ocean ; the other species, Phaeton 

 Pkoenicurus, seeming to belong further eastward, both meeting 

 in nearly equal numbers at the Mauritius and other islands of 

 the same group. Their flight is described as calm, quiet, and 



Fig. 101. — Tropic Bird (Fhaeton athereus, Linn.). 



composed of frequent strokes of the wing, interrupted by sudden 

 falls. The bird is about the size of a Partridge, with red bill 

 and markings under the lower mandible ; in general appearance it 

 resembles the Gulls, but has longer and more powerful wings ; the 

 legs and feet are vermilion red, the latter webbed ; the tail has 

 two long, narrow feathers. One of their breeding-places is the 

 Bermudas, where the high rocks which surround the island are 

 a protection from the attacks of the fowler. P. Pkoenicurus is a 

 larger bird, being thirteen inches from the bill to the root of the 

 tail; the long tail-feathers being red of the deepest hue. 



