THE TROPIC BIRD. 279 



and most elegant of men-of-war. Sir Hans SI cane, who saw 

 numbers of them at Jamaica, describes them under the name of 

 Man-of-War Birds. "They fly," he says, "like Kites, look 

 black, are very large-winged in proportion to their size, and 

 they fight with Sea Gulls for their prey." They are eminently 

 raptorial. Ray speaks of their eagle eye, vulturine claws, and 

 cat-like gliding movements, their immense extent of wing, and 

 their dashing swoop. 



The Palmipede we are about to notice received from Linnteus 

 the mythological name of Phaeton, in allusion to the son of Apollo 

 and Clymene, who is said to have made an audacious attempt to 

 drive the chariot of the Sun. 



Pelicans. 



The PelicanidfE, which Mr. Gray makes his sixth and last family 

 of Palmipedes, includes Cuvier's Totipalmes, or birds having the 

 hind-toe united to the others by a single membrane. This extensive 

 family comprehends the Tropic Birds (Phaetoii), the Anhingas 

 (Plotus), the Boobies (Sula), the Cormorants (P/ialacrocorax) , and 

 the Pelicans {Pelicanus). 



The group comprehends those birds which have the base of the 

 bill denuded of feathers, the nostrils mere slots, in which the opening 

 is scarcely perceptible ; the skin of the throat more or less capable 

 of distension ; the tongue small. Some of the group are large and 

 heavy birds, but they are all gifted with powerful wings ; they 

 are, at the same time, good swimmers. 



The Tropic Bird {Phaeton). 



Synonyms. — Lcpturus: Mcohr. TropicoKphus : Leaoh. Tropic Bird: Sloane, 

 Catesby, and others. 



These birds are well known to navigators as the harbingers 

 which foretell the approach to the Tropics. They are distinguished 

 by two long, slender tail-feathers, whence their French name of 

 Paille-en- Queue. They are gifted with great length of wing, 

 which, with their feeble feet, proclaims them formed especially 

 for flight. They are accordingly swift and untiring on the wing, 

 heedlessly going far out to sea; forming, as Lesson remarks, a 



