PHAETHONTID.E — THE TROPIC BIRDS — PHAETHON. 189 



abundance near high islands, breeding in holes made in the face of rocky precipices. 

 In the mountainous regions of Tahiti it is quite numerous. 



Dr. Henry Bryant found the Tropic-bird breetling in the Bahamas, where he visited 

 three breeding-places. At Long Rock, near Exuina, it breeds in holes in the horizon- 

 tal surface of the rock, as also at Water Key, one of the Bagged Island Keys ; at Cayo 

 Verde — which is about thirty miles east of Great Bagged Island — in holes in the 

 perpendicular faces of the cliffs, and also in the horizontal surface of the rock. Before 

 the depositing of the egg the pair occupy the same hole; but afterward only one 

 bird is found. Both sexes incubate. On the 20th of April about half had begun 

 to lay. and only a few eggs had been sat on three or four days ; most of them had 

 been freshly laid. The birds feed from early daylight until about nine o'clock, when 

 they return to their holes, in which they pass the hotter p>art of the day, again leaving 

 them toward sunset in search of food. The holes chosen are seldom shallow, and 

 are often so winding that, though its harsh note can be heard within, the bird can only 

 be procured by demolishing the rock. In their habits the Phaetons closely resemble 

 the Terns, as they do also in their mode of flight and external appearance. When 

 flying, the long feathers of the tail do not separate. If their breeding-places are 

 approached when the parent birds are out of their holes, they hover over the intruder, 

 screaming and darting at him in the manner of the Terns. The single egg is large 

 for the size of the bird, whitish, covered almost entirely with reddish chocolate- 

 colored spots, finely dotted over the surface ; and these marks may be easily rubbed off. 

 They measure 2.09 inches in length by 1.65 in breadth. The egg was sometimes 

 deposited on the bare rock, and sometimes on a few twigs — which may, however, have 

 accidentally fallen into the hole. 



Eggs of this species in the Smithsonian Collection (No. 1859), obtained in the 

 Bermudas by Mr. J. H. Darrell, have a ground-color of a purplish brownish white, 

 marked with fine spots and sprinkled with deep claret-brown — in some so dark as 

 to approach blackness. They are 2.10 inches long, and from 1.45 to 1.55 inches 

 in breadth. 



Phaethon aethereus. 



THE RED-BILLED TROPIC BIRD. 



Phaethon txthereus, Linn. S. N. I. 1758, 134; ed. 12, 1766, 219. — Bom>. Tabl. P. E. 1783, 58 (ex 

 PI. Enl. 998). —Semper, P. Z. S. 1872, 653 (St. Lucia, W. I.). — Saltin, Trans. Zool. Soc. 

 Lond. IX. ix. 1875, 497 (Tower I. Galapagos). — Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 655. — 

 Coues, 2d Check List, 1882, no. 762. 



Phaeton Catcsbiji, Brandt, Mem. Ac. St. Petersb. 1840, Sc. Nat. III. 270. 



? Phaeton melanorhynckas, Gmel. S. N. I. ii. 1788. 



Hab. Coasts of tropical America. Socorro Island, Western Mexico, and Gulf of California ; 

 casual near Newfoundland Banks. 



Sp. Char. Bill deep coral-red. Adult: Prevailing color satiny white ; abroad crescent im- 

 mediately in front of the eye, and a stripe behind it, extending back to the occiput (sometimes 

 meeting behind), longer scapulars (except edges), greater portion of the primary-coverts, and outer 

 webs of four to six outer primaries (except at ends), deep black ; nape, back, scapulars, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts, narrowdy and rather irregularly barred with blackish plumbeous ; flanks broadly 

 striped with plumbeous. Elongated central rectrices pure white, the shafts blackish toward the 

 base. Bill deep coral-red ; iris brown ; tarsi and base of feet, to first joint of toes, including nearly 

 the whole of the web between inner and hind toes, yellow (orange in life ?) ; remainder of feet 

 black. 



Total length about 30 to 35 inches ; wing, 11.75-12.50 ; elongated middle rectrices, sometimes 

 22.00 ; oilmen, about 2.50. 



