VOl 'l9l^ XII j Mathews, Phaethon catesbyi. 197 



seems to have had P. aethereus in mind in the former case, though 

 his description otherwise applies exclusively to P. flamrostris." 



In 'The Ibis,' 1914, Karl Plath has written about the Bermuda 

 Phaethon and on p. 554 observes : " I had noticed that the birds flying 

 about seemed to have orange red bills rather than the yellow to 

 which they owe their name, and this bird certainly had a red bill. 

 I called the attention of my companion to it, and we agreed that it 

 could be best described as bright orange-red, inclining to vermilion 

 on the upper ridge." 



This confirms the accuracy of Catesby's observation with regard 

 to the bill-colouration, but Karl Plath's legs and feet colouration 

 does not coincide with that given by Catesby. The other points 

 are the omission of the black band along the wing and the scapular 

 colouration while the back is said to be variegated with curved lines 

 of black. The figure given shows these black lines to be practically 

 coincident with the black scapulars while if the figured or described 

 bird were slightly immature it might show black lines on the back. 

 The description as a whole is quite inapplicable to P. aethereus 

 and seems quite good enough for acceptance. As far as I can trace 

 only one species of Phaethon breeds at Bermuda where Catesby 

 procured specimens himself. I designate Bermuda as the type- 

 locality of Phaethon catesbyi Brandt and recommend its usage for 

 the American Tropic Bird, known as the Yellow-billed Tropic 

 Bird. As this is a misnomer, why not replace it by "Catesby's 

 Tropic Bird" and thus honour the writer of one of the most in- 

 teresting books on American natural history? 



I would remark that for the small Tropic Birds I use the generic 

 name Leptophaethon which I introduced in the ' Austral Avian 

 Record,' Vol. II, p. 56, 1913, with type Phaethon lepturus Daudin. 

 These have only twelve tail-feathers as against the fourteen of 

 P. aethereus or the sixteen of P. rubricauda. They are smaller, 

 more delicately formed birds and the tail is of a different nature. 

 The elongated central tail-feathers have comparatively wide webs, 

 and the tail otherwise is strongly wedge-shaped, the two feathers 

 adjacent to the central ones being twice as long^ as the outside 

 feathers. 



To be consistent with their general usage as regards genera 

 American ornithologists must accept my genus Lepto phaethon. 



