iSg,.] Scott o?i ific Tellow-billed Tropic liird. 255 



ino-s are quite as piotuse but of a very much lighter shade tluiu 

 those of the huger end. And there is an area between the two 

 extremes ahiiost devoid of any markings. This makes a sort of 

 light belt about the egg, rather more than three-quarters ot an 

 in'ch wide. This egg contained a chick almost ready to be 

 hatched. The other two eggs, Nos. 5 and 6, are similar in gen- 

 eral appearance to Nos. i and 3 respectively and measure (No. 5) 

 3.33X 1.60 inches, (No. 6) 3.1SX 1.55 inches. They were both 

 slightly incubated. 



There was no attempt at nest building in any of the cases 

 noted, the egg being laid directly on the coarse sand or gravel, 

 or on the dirt that had accumulated in the bottom of the hole. 



I have seen these birds all the way along the north shore of the 

 island from a point known as Hector's River on the east to Lucea 

 on the west, wherever the clifts atlbrded them shelter. They act 

 very much like the larger Terns, the movements of the wings 

 and method of feeding being very similar. The stomachs of the 

 birds examined contained fragments of a species of squid or small 

 cuttlefish, about four or five inches in length, and this was ap- 

 parently the fiivorite food, though small fish from two to four 

 inches in length were found mixed with the food before men- 

 tioned in four individuals. 



On the 15th of March, a day or two before I left Boston, a na- 

 tive secured for me from one of the breeding places in the clifi", a 

 young bird which I should think was at least a week or ten days 

 old. °It is No. 1 1335 of my Register and is a female. It is cov- 

 ered with rather sparse, long white down, and the quills of the 

 wings and tail just begin to show. A space in front of the eye 

 and reaching to the bill is bare of feathers. This bare region ex- 

 tends below the eye to the gape, and thence narrowly back of and 

 narrowly around the eye. The color of the bare skin in this re- 

 gion in the live young bird is dark dull brown. Iris brown. 

 Feet l)lack. Bill yellowish with last quarter of an inch on both 

 mandibles brownish black. 



In breeding the birds seem eminently gregarious and the colo- 

 nies at difterent points often reach an aggregate of at least fifty 

 pairs. At sea, far out of sight of land, the birds are much more 

 solitary in their habits, single birds being frequently met with, 

 and it has been rare in my experience to meet with more than 

 four individuals together in such locations. It may interest the 



