122 The Stork-like Birds 



This is a small suborder or order, as it is often denominated, of rather large 

 aquatic, often oceanic, birds, that may be known at once by having all four toes 

 connected by webs. There are, of course, a number of other mainly technical 

 characters, but this "one feature is sufficient to define the group." They are 

 disposed in six families, seven genera, and about seventy-five living species, with 

 some thirty-five more or less satisfactory fossil species. 



THE TROPIC-BIRDS 



(Family Phaethontidce) 



According to the ancient Greek mythology, Phaethon, son of Helios, one day 

 attempted to drive the celestial chariot in its course across the sky, but the fiery 

 steeds recognized the unaccustomed hand, and swerved from the usual path, 

 causing dire disaster. In fanciful mood Linnaeus gave the name of Phaethon 

 to the Tropic-birds, inasmuch as they, in their wanderings, follow mainly the 

 path of the sun, though occasionally the power of the gale may, as did the un- 

 tamed steeds of Phaethon, force them far from their usual course. " The Tropic- 

 bird," says Nuttall, "soaring perpetually over the tepid seas, where it dwells 

 without materially straying beyond the verge of the ecliptic, seems to attend the 

 car of the sun under the mild zone of the tropics, and advises the mariner with 

 unerring certainty of his entrance within the torrid climes." 



The Tropic-birds, or " boatswains, " as they are often called by the sailors, 

 number six or seven forms, some of which are occasionally found in the United 

 States. They have a compressed, pointed, and slightly curved bill, with the 

 cutting edges of the mandibles serrated. In color the bill is yellow, orange, or 

 coral-red, the wings are long and rather narrow, and the tail of twelve to sixteen 

 feathers, of which the middle pair are greatly elongated and attenuated. The 

 general color of the plumage is white or pinkish throughout, and very soft and 

 satiny in appearance. 



In general appearance the Tropic-birds are quite suggestive of Terns, although 

 distinguished at once by the elongated middle, instead of lateral, tail-feathers. 

 From the Frigate-birds, their companions of the deep, they are distinguished 

 by the color of the plumage, the shape of the bill, the absence of a bare spot 

 about the eyes and no throat sac, as well as by the elongated middle tail-feathers. 



The Tropic-birds are strictly birds of the ocean and are often seen hundreds 

 of miles from land. Not infrequently when thus far from shore they come, in 

 a more or less exhausted state, to find rest in the rigging of a ship. Although 

 they fly for great distances their flight is not the easy, graceful motion of, for in- 

 stance, an Albatross, but consists of "regular and rather rapid strokes of the 

 wing, without any apparent intermission." Their food consists largely of fish 



