PHAETHON ELAVIEOSTEIS. 1175 



likewise found in the West Indies. In the Pacific it is widely distributed among the islands of Polynesia. 

 Layard records it from Fiji, and it is included in M. Marie's list of New-Caledonian birds. It has recently 

 been procured by a German naturalist, Mr. Hiibner, in the island of Eua, whence also Layard obtained its 

 egg. It has also been procured of late in the islands of Ponape and Niwafou ; Canon Tristram has specimens 

 from the Samoa group ; and Messrs. Hartlaub and Finsch speak of it from the Pelew Islands (where it breeds), 

 from the Stewart group, and likewise from Ualan, one of the eastern Caroline islands. 



Habits. — The Tropic-birds are well-known attendants on vessels while passing through warm latitudes, as 

 their inquisitiveness causes them, particularly at nights, to hover ahout the mast-heads ; sometimes they will 

 fly round the vane and now and then peck at it, and on still moonlight nights, in the Indian Ocean, I have 

 seen them sitting on it for half an hour together. The present species does not differ in its nature from 

 its larger and better-known relative, the Red-tailed Tropic-bird ; and some of the individuals which I saw 

 about the ship at night during a recent voyage down the Indian Ocean most probably belonged to it. These 

 birds are fearless, and will approach close to a vessel in the daytime. They dwell much on the open ocean, 

 and are possessed of great powers of flight. They usually fly with the bills pointed downwards, often hovering 

 for a while, and plunge rapidly on their prey like a Tern, not immersing more than the head and neck in the 

 water; their plump form and lengthened pointed tails give them a graceful appearance on the wing, and the 

 motion of their wings, which is rapid and regular, adds to the attractiveness of their appearance. Notwith- 

 standing, however, that " Bo'sun " birds are found so much at sea, numbers are resident about the islands 

 where they breed, and there subsist largely on crabs ; at sea they are often to be seen dropping on flying-fish, 

 and probably pick up various floating matter, as do Petrels. The name of " Boatswain-bird " is applied by 

 sailors to these birds on account of a fancied resemblance in the tail to a marling-spike, which is one of the 

 most important of a boatswain's stores. 



The Boatswain-bird walks with difficulty. Jones, in his account of the natural history of Bermuda, says 

 it " rests its breast on the ground, and shuffles along in an awkward manner, spreading its wings partially." 



Nidification. — The nearest nesting-place of this species to Ceylon is probably to be found in the Seychelles 

 group. Here Mr. E. Newton found a nest on Mahe in January ; it was situated in a hole in the dead stump 

 of a " capucin/' about 15 feet from the ground, and contained a young bird, the produce of the single egg 

 which these species always lay. At Ascension Mr. Gill, as recorded by Mr. Penrose [loc. cit.), found it breeding 

 on " Boatswain-bird Island," so called from the large numbers of Tropic-birds which always nest there. It 

 was scarcer than the larger barred species, P. cethereus, and was nesting in holes on the side of the island. Like 

 its congeners it is very tame when breeding, allowing itself to be pulled out of its nest, but biting vigorously 

 notwithstanding. An egg which Canon Tristram has kindly lent me for examination has a reddish-white 

 ground-colour, but is so much obscured by the brownish-red stipplings with which the whole egg is covered 

 that it is scarcely visible ; round the middle of the egg the speckling is somewhat coarser than at the ends ; 

 but at the small end the specks have the appearance of having run into one another, and this part is best 

 described by saying it has a sedimentary look. In shape it is a stumpy oval, much broader at one end than 

 the other, though neither are pointed, but, on the contrary, rather flattened. Its dimensions are- — length 2'08, 

 breadth 1*52 inches. 



Canon Tristram kindly sends me the following interesting account, which I give here verbatim, of the 

 nesting of this species at Bermuda : — " After a lapse of thirty-four years, Capt. Legge invites me to write my 

 recollections of the breeding of Phaeton flavirostris in Bermuda. Premising that I have only the stores of 

 memory, not of note-books, to which to refer, I cannot give exact dates of days of month &c, which, however, 

 have, I believe, been supplied by my friend Mr. Jones, in the ' Naturalist in Bermuda/ All through the winter 

 months and the early spring not a Tropic-bird is ever seen round the islands. They muster, on a sudden, 

 towards the end of April ; and then for three months they are the ornithological feature of the still vexed 

 Bermoothes. Their arrival is not a silent one. Noisy as Swifts they dash and sweep and sail round cliffs and 

 headlands with their wondrously graceful flight. In a few days they seem to have decided on their respective 

 ledges, much after the fashion of Books in an English park. Each pair select a little ledge with a hole in the 

 soft limestone cliff, if they can find one ; if not, they content themselves with a shallow scooped niche, always, 



