iSgi.J Scott ou l/ic Ycllo-M-billcd Tropic Bird. 2C3 



tioiis at night. Tlic birtis appear every moniiiig just after the sun 

 is up aiul are then to be seen In the gi'eatest nmnbers. By ten 

 o'clock they have either gone far out to sea to continue feeding 

 or have retired to their roosting places in the cliffs. Their ab- 

 sence is noticeable from about the time in the morning indicated 

 until just before sundown, when a few, not nearly so many as may 

 he observed in the morning, are to be observed flying along out- 

 side of the clirts. The native fishermen say that most of the 

 birds return to their roosting places when it is almost too dark to 

 see." 



The following notes on coloration were made from twenty in- 

 dividuals in the flesh taken February 25 and 26, 1S91. 



"There is apparently no variation among the individuals I have 

 examined that correlates with sex, and no external features by 

 which the sex can be determined. But there is a very consider- 

 able diflerence in the lengtli antl color of the long central tail 

 feathers that presumably correlates with the age of the individual. 

 Frequently the webs of the long central tail feathers are pure 

 dead white or nearly white and there is every gradation between 

 this and deep intense salmon color. This salmon color in some 

 individuals, presumably very adult ones, extends in the live bird 

 to the feathers of the back and breast in a rather mottled man- 

 ner. This color is evanescent, like the blush tint on some Gulls 

 and Terns. The bills vary from light straw color to deep red- 

 dish orange, the straw-colored bills being lightest in those imli- 

 viduals which have the central tail feathers pure white. This 

 phase of plumage is probably characteristic of birds of a year 

 old and under two years old." 



" Priestman's River, Jamaica, W. I., February 27, 1S91.- — 

 Today Mr. Dugmore obtained fifteen individuals of Phaethon 

 flavlrostris and much additional information regarding the birds. 

 Of these birds five were shot, eight were taken in a cave, which 

 opened by a small mouth from the clifl', and two were secured in 

 holes in the cllfl'as already recorded. The cave where the birds 

 were found had a very small entrance, about large enough for a 

 man to crawl into, in the face of the clifl'. This was approach- 

 able only in the calmest weather, in a boat. The entrance led at 

 once into a spacious chamber of irregular shape. Going directly 

 back from the mouth the cavern was some sixty feet deep. It 

 was at its widest point some seventy or eighty feet, and oval in 



