52 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 



the circumstance, as Lieutenant Eraser fell in the Crimea, 

 and McNish was, unfortunately, drowned at Gallipoli. The 

 bird was a female specimen, measuring eight feet six inches 

 from wing to wing. A strong easterly gale had been blow- 

 ing for some days. One or two others were seen afterwards, 

 but none of them were shot. 



Tropic Bird {Phaeton cethereus.) Very common. These 

 birds arrive regularly every year from the south in March 

 and April. I observed them as early as the 10th March, in 

 the year 1848, and until 25th September of the same year ; 

 and again on 1st March, 1850, 1 saw eight on the north shore, 

 near the light-house. I also observed one on the 19th No- 

 vember, 1849, about twenty miles out at sea. They breed 

 in holes in the rocks on the various islands, and parti- 

 cularly along the south shore, and Gurnet-head Eock, about 

 the beginning of May. The parent birds sit so close that 

 they allow themselves to be caught by the hand ; they 

 however show some fight, seizing your fingers in their 

 powerful serrated bill, and occasionally biting very hard. 

 The young birds are marked on the back and wings with 

 transverse bracket-shaped bars of black or brown, but want- 

 ing the two elongated centre tail feathers. It is very singu- 

 lar that the young birds are never seen after they leave the 

 holes in which they were reared, and I presume they at 

 once proceed to sea with the parent birds. The Phaeton ■ 

 lays one egg only, of a chocolate colour, with large brown 

 patches, and spotted with black and brown, exactly re- 

 sembling in colour the egg of our British kestril, only 

 larger, and of a more oval form. 



EOSBATB Tern {Sterna Dougalli'i). This was the first 

 bird new' to the Bermuda list, that I found in. the Islands. 



