186 



TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS — STEGANOPODES. 



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

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

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



Phaethon flavirostris, 



THE YELLOW-BILLED TKOPIC BIED. 



Lepturus eavdidus, Biiiss. Orn. VI. 1760, 485. 



Phaeton candidiis. Gray, Gen. B. 1847, pi. 183. 



Phaeton aethereus, Bodd. Tabl. P. E. 1783, 22 (ex Pi. Enl. 309 ; nee Linn., 1758). — Bonap. Synop. 



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



Lawr. in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 885. — Baird, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 629. — CouES, Key, 



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



no. 654. 

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

 " Phaeton Edwardi, Brandt." 

 The 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. Adult : 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 outer 

 primaries deep black. Shafts of the 

 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 and 

 extreme base of the toes yellow, rest 

 of feet black. Young: General color 

 white ; black of the wings and that 

 behind the eye indicated by spots ; 

 back, scapulars, rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, nape, and crown irregulai'ly barred with black ; tail-feathers marked with a black spot 

 near the end, the middle rectrices not elongated. 



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

 tail-feathers sometimes 20.00; culmen, 2.25. 



1 Phajotiion rubricaudus. 



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



Phaethmi rubricaudus, Streets, Bull. TJ. S. Nat. Mus. no. 7, 1877, 25 (Christmas I.). 



Phcenicurus ruhricauda, Bonap. Consp. II. 1857, 183. 



Phaeton phoenicuros, Gmel. S. N. I. ii. 1788, 583. — Jard. Contr. Oru. 1852, pi. 84, fig. 3. 



Phaethon a;thereus, Bloxii. Voy. Blonde, 1826, 951 (not of LiNN., 1766). 



2 Audubon describes the bill of the male as " orange-red," and that of the female as yellow ; but he 

 seems to have had P. cethereus in mind in the former case, though his description otherwise applies exclu- 

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

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



