THK BIRD BOOK 



TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS. Order IV. STEGANOPODES 

 TROPIC BIRDS. Family PHAETHONTIDAE 



Tropic Birds are Tern-like birds, liaving all the toes connected by a web, 

 and having the two central tail leathers very much lengthened. 



112. Yellow-eilleu Thopic Bird. Phirthqn 

 americanus. 



Range. — Tropical regions, breeding in the Ba- 

 hamas. West Indies and the Bermudas, casual in 

 Florida and along the Soutli Atlantic coast. 



The Tropic Birds are tlie most strilcingly 

 beautiful of all the sea birds; they are about' 30 

 inches in length, of which tlieir long slender tail 

 takes about 20 inches. They tly with the ease 

 and grace of a Tern, but with quicker wing beats. 

 They feed on small fish, which they capture by 



V- 



Dull purplish 



darting down upon, and upon snails wliich they 

 get from the beach and ledges. They build their 

 nests in the crevices and along the ledges of the 

 rocky cliffs. While gregarious to a certain ex- 

 tent they are not nearly as much so as the Terns. 

 The nest is made of a mass of seaweed and weeds; 

 but one egg is laid, this being of a creamy or pale 

 purplish ground color, dotted and sprinkled with 

 chestnut, so thickly as to often obscure the 

 ground color. Size 2.10x1.45. Data. — Coney Is., 

 Bermudas, May 1, 1901. Nest made of mosS and 

 ledge of cliff. Collector. A. H. Verrill. 



rrlldw-lMllPil Tropic Bii-d 

 Kr.l-liilled Tropic Bird 



seaweed in a crevice on 



W- 



-=i,Si^-;- 





72 



