V0l *ifif XH ] Mathews, Phaethon catesbyi. 195 



PHAETHON CATESBYI BRANDT. 



BY GREGORY M. MATHEWS. 



Investigation of the forms of the family Phaethontidse for the 

 purpose of my 'Birds of Australia' compelled the determination 

 of the above name with the result that I find it must displace 

 Phaethon americanus Ogilvie-Grant. This latter name is accepted 

 in the Amer. Ornith. Union's Check-List, 3d Ed., p. 59, 1910, so 

 that I must give reasons for its rejection. 



When Ogilvie-Grant monographed the family in the ' Catalogue 

 of the Birds in the British Museum, ' Vol. XXVI, he was enabled, 

 through a recent discovery of Mr. CD. Sherborn, to follow strictly 

 the law of priority and displace the well-known Phaethon candidus, 

 by the hitherto unheard of Phaethon Upturns of Lacepede and 

 Daudin. He was also able to indicate that Phaethon flavirostris 

 Brandt had been misapplied to the American bird, which differed 

 from the Mauritius species, of which Brandt's name became a 

 synonym. For the American species, he therefore proposed 

 Phaethon americanus and this name has been admitted for seventeen 

 years. 



This provides another of those strange anomalies which have 

 been constantly noted by myself while engaged in the determina- 

 tion of Australian birds. I refer to the acceptance of names 

 utilised in the ' Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum ' by 

 American ornithologists when a very little investigation would 

 have proved their inapplicability. In the ' Catalogue of Birds of 

 the British Museum,' Vol. XXVI, p. 456, 1898, where Phaethon 

 americanus is catalogued the very first reference reads : 



"Tropick Bird, Catesb. Car. II App. pi. 14 (1743) (Bermuda; 

 Porto Rico)." 



The following is the gist of the account there given: "Mr. 

 Willughby's description . . . .differs somewhat from ours, which was 

 made from the living Bird. The legs in his, by long keeping, had 

 lost their red colour, which all that I have seen, while living, have. 

 This Bird is about the size of a Partridge, and has very long wings. 



