196 Mathews, Phaethon catesbyi. [.April 



The bill is red, with an angle under the lower mandible like those 

 of the Gull kind, of which it is a species. The eyes are encompassed 

 with black, which ends in a point towards the back of the head. 

 Three or four of the larger quill feathers, towards their ends, are 

 black, tipt with white; all the rest of the Bird is white, except the 

 back which is variegated with curved lines of black. The legs and 

 feet are of a vermilion red. The toes are webbed. The tail con- 

 sists of two long straight narrow feathers, almost of equal breadth 

 from their quills to their points. These Birds are rarely seen but 

 between the Tropicks, at the remotest distance from land . . . .yet 

 one of their breeding-places is almost nine degrees from the north- 

 ern Tropick, viz. at Bermudas, where from the high rocks that 

 environ those Islands, I have shot them at the time of their breed- 

 ing .... they breed also in great numbers on some little Islands at 

 the east end of Porto Rico." 



For the time when this article was written, 1743, this is a most 

 accurate and complete description of the Bermuda bird, and the 

 figure given is a splendid one of the species known as the Yellow- 

 billed Tropic-bird. 



As a synonym of Phaethon aeihereus, Ogilvie-Grant ranged:. 



" Phaeton catesbyi, Brandt, Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. (6) v, pt. II, 

 p. 270 (1840) (Bermuda: Rico)." 



I trace this determination through Gray (Handl. Gen. Sp. Birds, 

 pt. Ill, p. 124, 1871) to Bonaparte (Consp. Gen. Av. II, p. 183, 

 1857). Reference, however, to Brandt's paper shows that he gave 

 this name to the "Avis Tropicorum, Catesby, Nat. Hist, of Carol 

 I., II. Ed. Edwards, p. 114, t. 14." This is simply a reprint of the 

 account given by Catesby as quoted above, with the same plate 

 reproduced. 



If Catesby 's name be applicable to Phaethon americanus Grant 

 then Brandt's name must be and it has 57 years' priority. In 

 Catesby's description three debatable points may be noticed. 

 First, the bill is given as red. This species is known as the Yellow- 

 billed Tropic Bird and in the 'Water Birds of North America,' 

 Vol. II, p. 186, 1884, the bill is described as deep chrome or wax 

 yellow and a footnote reads: "Audubon describes the bill of the 

 male as "orange-red," and that of the female as yellow: but he 



