1174 PHAETHON FLAVIROSTEIS. 



coral-red and the legs yellow. The adult is white, with a black band in front of the eye ; the shafts of the 

 primaries and secondaries black,- except near the tips ; the tertials with a black band down the centre, terminating 

 | inch from the tip ; shafts of the tail-feathers black, the attenuated portion of the centre pair with the webs rid. 

 the centre of the feather black towards the base in continuation of the red ; axillaries with a slaty-black central 

 stripe. Wing 13-5 ; tail 14-4 to 2(>0 inches (British Museum). This species is common in the southern parts of 

 the Indian Ocean, breeding at Round Island near Mauritius ; it also extends to the tropical parts of the Atlantic, 

 breeding at Ascension Island. It is a straggler to the Bay of Bengal. 



Distribution. — Mr. Holdsworth mentions in his catalogue (loc. cit.) having seen this bird, to the best of 

 his belief, off the shores of Ceylon. Mr. Bligh, however, had the good fortune to pick up a dead bird on the 

 (lalle face in 1870, and preserved the skin. It is an inhabitant of the southern parts of the Indian Ocean, 

 breeding probably at Round Island and Rodriguez, as also in Madagascar ; and is not uncommon about the 

 Seychelles, having been met with there by Mr. E. Newton, breeding in the island of Mahe. It strays north- 

 ward into the Bay of Bengal, and has been got at the Andamans, where Col. Tytler shot a male specimen, 

 which he perceived for some clays hovering about a dove-cot in Ross Island, apparently attracted by the white 

 pigeons in it. Further north still, and in a strange locality, a specimen was met with by Mr. Inglis at 

 Dilkoosha, in the north-east of Cachar, about 170 miles from the sea! It was frequenting a river (having 

 probably been driven inland by a storm), and was captured by some native boys ! I find no further record of 

 its occurrence within Indian limits than these few instances of stragglers thither; and further west, in the Red 

 Sea, I observe that Heuglin did not meet with it, which shows that its habitat is for the most part south of the 

 Line as regards the Indian Ocean. The above is the only instance of its occurrence in Ceylon. 



In the Atlantic it frequents the vicinity of the islands of St. Helena, Ascension, and Bermuda, and is 



Ceylon, and is no doubt a not infrequent visitor to the shores of the island. Mr. Hume procured a specimen about 

 thirty miles from the Cherbaniani reef in the Laccadives, and has met with it along the west coast of India northward to 

 the Gulf of Oman generally, " in a zone between about seven and thirty miles off the shore." In the latter locality he styles 

 it as " not uncommon." Captain Butler met with it in these waters off the Mekran coast between Orruarra and Gwadar. 

 In the Bay of Bengal a species answering to the same description has been seen of late, about lat. 9°, by Mr. Davison; 

 hut whether it extends eastward of Singapore 1 am unable to say. Its head-quarters appear to be the south coast of 

 \rabia, the Gulf of Soeotra, and the southern portion of the Red Sea ; here Heuglin found it abundant and nesting in 

 the Dahlak archipelago. Southwards it probably extends along the east coast of Africa, perhaps ranging to the Seychelles 

 and Madagascar. 



Habits. — This species partakes of the same fearless and inquisitive nature as its fellows. Mr. Hume writes of it : — 

 '• They flew about the ship much like Terns, with their longish bills pointed downwards, after the manner of Sterna caspia, 

 and seemed totally fearless ; in fact were attracted to the vessel by guns which we fired at other birds. They did not, any 

 of them, come very close, not more than seventy or eighty yards as a rule ; but they flew round and round at this distance 

 for some time ; they were in several parties of from five to twenty.'' Von Heuglin remarks that they are to be met with 

 either singly or in pairs, but that occasionally they associate in small, though not very sociable, colonies, as the males are 

 of a pugnacious nature. He styles their note shrill, and says that on stormy days they affect the vicinity of cliffs, 

 where they are within reach of shelter, but in clear weather they frequent the open sea. In pairing-time these birds 

 show to advantage, when the males engage in sundry aerial combats, and dash about, pursuing one another with screams. 



Nidification. — Von Heuglin found this species breeding in the Red Sea, at the Dahlak archipelago, in June and Jul v. 

 On the island of Sarat el Kebir especially he found many nests in clefts in the rocks, in caves and under boulders ; the 

 entrances to the holes were so narrow that it did not seem possible for the bird to pass into the interior. The female 

 lays a single egg on the bare ground or rock at the end of the holes, which were 3 or 4 feet deep, and the nest-cavity was 

 generally behind a corner of rock at the end of the passage, so that the bird could not be seen from without : both sexes 

 appeared to assist in the work of incubation ; and in the heat of the day Von Heuglin generally found one of the birds in 

 the hole, in which they lie very close. The egg is described as proportionately large, glossless, and rather more round than 

 elongated ; they vary from 25 lines (2-09 inches) to 26 lines (2-15) in length, and from 16| lines (T34) to 18-i- lines (1-55) 

 in breadth. The ground is a clear grey clay-colour, or a reddish or violet-grey, and the markings consist of dark violet 

 specks and points, over which are larger spots of rusty brown and earth-brown, with occasionally a few blackish streaks ; 

 now and then the markings take a zone-like form. 



