IB !! 



186 



TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS — STEGANOPODKS. 



'M 



B. Elongated mifldle rectrices with their webs much narrower than the very rigid shaft. 



3. P. rubrioauduB.' Bill yellowish ; middle tail-feathers dull reddish, with black shafts ; 

 wing 13.00 inches or more ; culmen about 2.50. Hob. South Pacific Ocean. 



Phaethon flavirostris. 



THE TELLOW-BILLED TBOPIC BIBD. 



Leptunm candidus, Bniss. Orn. VI. 1760, 485. 



Plweton Candidas, Okay, Gen. B. 1847, pi. 183. 



Pluietmiaethercus, Bodd. Tiibl. P. E. 1783, 22 (ex PI. Enl. 309 ; nee Linn., 1758). — Bonap. Synoji. 



1828, no. 361; Consp. II. 1855, 183. — Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 503. — Aud. Orn. Biog. III. 



1835, 442 ; Synop. 1839, 312 ; B. Am. VII. 1844, 64, pi. 427. 

 Phaethon flavirostris, Bkandt, Bull. Sc. Acad. St. Petersb. II, 1837, 349. — ScL. P Z. S. 1856, 144. — 



Lawu. in Baiid's B. N. Am. 1858, 885. — Baiud, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 629. — CouKs, Key, 



1872, 307 ; Check List, 1873, no. 538 ; 2d ed. 1882, no. 763. — Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, 



no. 654. 

 ? Phceton flavo-aurantiits, Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. VII. April, 1860, 143 (hab. ignot.). 

 " Phaeton Edwardi, Buandt." 

 Tlie Tropic Bird, Edwards, Nat. Hist. B. 1749, pi. 149. 



Hab. Atlantic coasts of Central America, north to Florida ; West Indies ; Samoan Islands. 

 Sp. Char. Bill yellow. Advlt : General color satiny white, usually tinged more or less with 

 salmon-pink ; a broad crescent before the eye and a stripe behind it, exposed portion of the poste- 

 rior scapulars, inner tertials, a broad stripe across the middle of the middle wing-covert region, 



and outer webs of four to six outi'r 

 primaries deep black. Shafts of tlie 

 tail-feathers, and of all the primaries 

 toward the base, and a broad stripe 

 on the inner web of the outer prima- 

 ries next the shaft also black ; edge 

 of longer scapulars and ends of outer 

 webs of outer primaries white ; flanks 

 longitudinally striped with black ; 

 elongated middle rectrices delicate 

 pinkish salmon-color, sometimes 

 nearly white. Bill deep chrome- or 

 wax-yellow ; * iris brown ; tarsi ami 

 extreme base of the toes yellow, vest 

 of feet black. Young: General color 

 white ; black of the wings and tlmt 

 behind the eye indicated by spots ; 

 back, scapulars, rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, nape, and crown irregularly barred with black ; tail-feathers marked with a black sjKit 

 near the end, the middle recti'ices not elongated. 



Total length, aljout 25.00 to 32.00 inches ; extent, about 38.00 ; wing, 11.00 ; elongated middle 

 tail-feathers sometimes 20.00 ; culmen, 2.25. 



• PlIAKTHON RUDRtCAtJDUS. 



Phaeton rubricauda, Bodd. Tabl. P. E. 1783, 57 (ex Buff. PI. Enl. 979). 



Phaethon ruhricaiidxis, Strkets, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 7, 1877, 25 (Christmas I.). 



Phaenicurtis rubricauda, Bonap. C'onsp. II. 1857, 183. 



Phaeton phoenicuros, Gmf.i,. S. N. I. ii. 1788, 583. — Jard. Contr. Orn. 1852, pi. 84, fig. 3. 



Plmelhon wthcrcua, Bloxh. Voy. Blonde, 1826, 251 (not of Linn., 1766). 



* Audubon describes the bill of the male as " ovange-rcd," and that of the female as yellow ; but lie 

 seems to have had P. cel?icreu.i in mind in the former case, though his description otherwise applies exclu- 

 sively to P. flavirostris. He says that both sexes have the "iris brown ; tarsi and base of toes yellow, 

 the rest and the webs black, as are the claws " (" Birds of America," Vol. 7, p. 65). 



