

Order PELECANIFORMES.l 



[Family PHAETHONIDiE. 



PHAETHON RTTBRICAUDA. 



(RED-TAILED TROPIC BIRD.) 



Phaethon rubricauda, Bodd. ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 186. 



Since the publication of my work numerous specimens have been brought from the Kermadec 

 Islands, which have been politically and geographically added to New Zealand during the last 

 decade. 



One of the specimens in my collection (an adult male apparently) is remarkable on 

 account of the lovely salmon tint which pervades the plumage. 



I have mentioned (2nd edition, vol. ii., p. 187) the value placed on the red tail-feathers 

 by the Maoris. On my first visit to Tawhiao, the " Maori King," I took with me twenty of 

 these Amokura feathers. They were accepted as a truly royal gift ! 



Mr. Cheeseman records, on the authority of Mr. Bell, that this species breeds regularly 

 on Sunday Island, one of the Kermadec group, arriving in October and remaining until the 

 close of summer. Mr. Cheeseman received from his informant skins and eggs of this bird, 

 proving that his identification of the species was correct. 



Mr. Etheridge, writing of the birds of Lord Howe Island, says : ' We observed the Bed- 

 tailed Tropic Bird on the west side of Mount Ladybird, and on the seaward precipitous face 

 of the North Bidge. It is a remarkably shy and difficult bird to obtain." 



I saw a fine series of specimens in the Honolulu Museum. The curator assured me 

 that the young birds are very vicious, whereas the adult ones are so gentle that you may 

 pull out their long tail-feathers, whilst they are sitting on the nest, and they merely utter 

 a "squak" by way of protest. I remember the Earl of Pembroke, in his South-Sea narrative, 

 telling the same story. 



Colonel Floyd, who visited the Island of Mauritius in 1842, has described, from his 

 own observations, the manner in which the Tropic Bird uses the two long, slender tail- 

 feathers as a rudder by which to steer in a storm. (' Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc.,' Mauritius, 

 1842-45.) 



Order PELECANIFORMES.] 



[Family PELECANID.2E. 



PELECANU8 CONSPI CILL ATTJS. 



Pelecanus conspicillatus, Temm ; Buller, Trans. N. Z. Inst., vol. xxv., p. 61. 



I have in my possession the head and neck of an Australian Pelican which was shot by 

 the Maoris, on the Wanganui Eiver bank, about a mile above Hiruharama. This was in 

 1890. The bird was first observed in the early morning, and, being entirely strange to 



