349 



Key to the Species. 



a. Outer web of first primary black. 



'. Back barred in adults; white tips to iirst 



primary very narrow. Tail-feathers 14 . P. indicus, p. 349. 

 b' . Back quite white in adults; white tip to 



first primary more than 0'5 in. long-. 



Tail-feathers 12 P.Jlavirostris, p. 350. 



b. Outer web of tirst primary white. Tail- 



leathers 1C . P, rubricauda, p. 350. 



The Tropic-birds, called by sailors Boatswain (Bosun) Birds, 

 because, it is said, the long median tail-feathers recall the Boat- 

 swain's marling- spike, are truly oceanic, and are commonly seen 

 at a distance from land, where they attract attention by their 

 habit of flying up to ships, hovering round the masts, and some- 

 times resting on the masthead. They have a swift and elegant 

 night, and are often seen with their bills pointed downward, but 

 they turn their heads in various directions, sideways and even 

 backward when flying. Their visits to ships appear due to 

 curiosity, anything serves to attract them, and the firing of a gun 

 will often bring them from a considerable distance. They feed on 

 fish captured on the surface. They breed on oceanic islands, 

 chiefly in holes of rocks, laying a single egg, pinkish-white in 

 colour, mottled, spotted, and smeared with brownish purple. 



1533. Phaethon indicus. The Short-tailed Tropic-bird. 



Phaeton rubricauda, apud Holdsiuorth, P.Z.S. 1872, p. 482 



Blanford, ZooL Geol. Abyssinia, p. 441 ; nee Bodd. 

 Phaeton <etherius, apud Hume, S. F. i. pp. 286, 441 ; nee Linn. 

 Phaeton indicus, Hume, S. F. iv, p. '481 (1876); Butler, S. F. v, 



p. 302 ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. . vi, p. 493; Hume, Cat. no. 996 bis ; 



Butler, S. F. viii. p. 388 ; Let/ye, Birds CeyL p. 1173 ; Hume, S. F. 



x, p. 146 ; Gates, B. B. ii, p.' 226 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 434. 



Fig. 81 .Head of P. indicus. $. 



Coloration white, with a satiny gloss, barred with black on the 

 hind neck, back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts, -the bars 

 more or less crescentic ; a single broadly crescentic black patch 

 in front of the eye extending to the gape, and a black streak, 

 more or less broken, running back from each eye to the nape and 



