THE OAR-FOOTED SEA-FLIERS. 



221 



feet are black. The length of this species is two feet four inches, breadth three feet ; the longest tail- 

 feathers are fifteen inches, and the rest five inches. The Red-tailed Tropic Bird is met with throughout 

 the warm and temperate parts of the South Seas and Indian Ocean ; during August and September 

 it retires to breed upon the islands. The following description of the eggs and young was given to 

 Mr. Gould by Macgillivray : — 



" The eggs of the P. Phmnicurus are blotched and speckled with brownish red on a pale reddish 



THE WHITE-TAILED TROPIC BIRD (Phaeton mtherens). ONE-FOURTH NATURAL SIZE. 



grey ground, and are two inches and three-eighths long, by one inch four-eighths and a half broad. 

 The contents of the stomach consisted of the remnants of cuttle-fishes." 



Latham states that these birds are found in great numbers in the Island of Mauritius, where they 

 make their nests on the ground under trees. According to Bennett, " The nestlings have a singular 

 appearance, resembling powder-puffs, being round as a ball and of a delicate snow-white colour ; the 

 plumage of the first year is white speckled with black, and they are deficient in the red shafts 

 projecting from the tail, which do not make their appearance till the second year, when on the young 

 bird moulting, the splendid and delicate roseate plumage is displayed." 



The GANNETS (Sulci) are larger but more slenderly built than the Tropic Birds. Their bill is 

 longer than the head, and the upper mandible looks as though it were divided posteriorly into an 



