THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 481 
and 416) and to be somewhat more elongated in shape and 
more richly colored. 
I only secured eight, and these are all more elongated and more 
decidedly pointed than the great majority of the fuliginosa 
eggs. 
The markings, too, in some specimens are perhaps somewhat 
more brightly coloured than in any of the eggs of this latter 
species, but with this exception the description already given of 
the eggs of the one will answer perfectly for those of the other. 
My specimens varied in length from 1°9 to 2°25, and in 
breadth from 1°33 to 1:46, but the average of eight is 2°08 
nearly by 1°38. 
996—Phaeton etherius, Lin.? P. indicus, Sp. Nov. 
We procured a specimen of this (or possibly a nearly allied) 
species near enough to Cherbaniani reef to necessitate its 
inclusion in the avi-tauna of the group. 
At the same time we never once met with it amongst the 
islands. 
As far as my experience goes, and I have shot many, these 
birds are not usually. met with either in mid ocean or very near 
the coast. All down the west coast of India it is only in a 
zone between about 7 and 30 miles off the shore that they are 
at all common. 
T have already, S. F., Vol I., p. 286, given full dimensions 
of 5 males and a female shot on the Mekran Coast, with a full 
description. 
The following particulars refer to the specimen shot about 30 
miles from Cherbaniani :— 
$. Length to end of ordinary tail feathers, 18:0; central 
tail feathers, 3 inches more; expanse, 38:5; tail to end 
of ordinary tail feathers, 4°75; wing, 11°5; tarsus, 1°15; mid 
toe and claw, 1°8; bill from gape, 3°4; at front, 2°35 ; weight, 
1°5 lbs. 
Trides, brown; bill, dull red; edges of both mandibles at 
commissure from point to gape, blackish brown; upper shelf 
of nostrils, and a line along junction of feathers and bill, on 
both mandibles dusky ; claws and three longer toes as far as 
basal joint, and webs between them black; rest of feet and 
legs, cream color, with bluish tinge on tarsus. 
This is the only species of Phaeton that I have seen or 
known to occur in the Indian Ocean anywhere near our Indian 
coasts or in the Gulf of Oman, or the Persian Gulf. Both 
flavirostris and rubricauda have, I know, occurred in the Bay of 
Bengal and about the Andamans and Nicobars, but I have 
neither seen nor heard of either of these in the localities above 
