PHAETHON. 137 



Pam. PHAETHONTID^. 



The Tropic-birds are distinguished from the rest of the Steganopodes by the form 

 of the tail and bill. The central feathers of the former are produced considerably 

 beyond the others, and the nostrils are distinct and linear in shape. ;Mr. Pycraft gives 

 the following definition of the Family \cf. Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. 

 p. 450] : — " Nostrils pervious ; palatines completely separate one from the other ; 

 vomer present ; a deep nasal hinge ; carina extending nearly the whole length of the 

 corpus sterni ; free end of clavicle not provided with a facet for articulation with the 

 acrocoracoid." 



PHAETHON. 



Phaeton, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 219 (1766). 



Phaethon, Illiger, Prodr. p. 280 (1811) ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 450 (1898). 



The characters of the genus Phaethon are the same as those of the family 

 Phaethontidae, of which it is the sole representative. !Mr. Ogilvie Grant characterizes 

 the genus as follows : — " Bill compressed, pointed, and slightly curved throughout, the 

 cutting-edges of the mandibles serrated ; nostrils distinct, linear ; wings long, the first 

 primary rather longer than the second ; tail composed of from 12 to 16 feathers, the 

 middle pair being greatly elongated and attenuated ; tarsus very short." 



Six species of Tropic-birds are known, all of them inhabitants of the tropical seas. 

 Two occur ofi" the coasts and islands of Central America, viz. P. americanus and 

 P. oethereus. 



1. Phaethon americamis. 



Tropick-Bird, Catesby, N. H. Carolina, ii. App. t. 14. \ 



Phaeton tEthereus, Audub. Birds Amer. vii. p. 64, t. 427 (nee Linn.) '. 



Phaeton flavirostris (nee Brandt), Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H. vii. p. 128' ; Gundl. Orn. Cuban. 



p. 314*; Scott, Auk, viii. pp. 253-256',- A. O. U. Check-l. N. Amer. Birds, 2nd ed. 



p. 39". 

 Phaethon americamis, Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Bii'ds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 456 ^ 



Pure albas, macnla anteorbitali nigra, supra regionem parotieam producta ; tectricibus alarum medianis nigris, 

 et scapularibus ad apieem nigris, vel nigris albo limbatis ; primariis extemis nigris, intns albis et albo 

 apicatis ; secundariis inb'mis nigris, infcus albis et albo late terminatis : subtus pure albus, hypochondriis 

 imis medialiter late griseo-nigro striatis ; rectricibus 12, albis, roseo tinctis, rhachidibus nigris : rostro 

 flavo. Long, tota circa 29-0, alse 10'5, caudse 4-6, rectr. med. 18'0, culm. 2-0, tarsi 0'9. (Descr. maris 

 adulti ex Bermuda. Mus. nostr.) 



$ man simUis. Alse ll'O. 



ffab. West Indies ais'd Atlantic Coast of Central America north to Florida and 

 Bermuda, accidental in Western New York « ; Bahamas ^, Jamaica ^, Cuba *, &c. 



The Central-American representative of the yellow-billed Tropic-bird of the Old 

 BIOL. CENTE.-AMER., Aves, Yol. III., April 1901. 18 



