ZOOLOGY. S9 



species of sea bird, although, on a careful examination, the 

 rocky cliffs were found to abound with the Phaeton sethereus 

 in the act of incubation. Those not immediately employed 

 in this duty, were unquestionably seeking food at a distance 

 in the ocean, but at what period of the day they return to 

 their breeding haunts, I have not been able to'ascertain. 



The tropic bird makes no nest, but having selected a 

 hole, or cavity in the rock, sometimes elevated, and at 

 others merely beyond the reach of the waves, invariably 

 lays a single egg. Some of these holes are superficial, 

 others appear Kke rabbit burrows in the softer rock, and, 

 in a few instances, I have found the entrance barely large 

 enough to admit the arm, and too deep to allow of reaching 

 the egg with the hand ; indeed, on one occasion, I could 

 only ascertain the presence of the old bird, by touching it 

 with the end of a ramrod, and thus exciting its well-known 

 grating cry. 



"When a breeding-place is intruded upon, the sitting bird 

 makes no effort to escape, but allows itself to be taken by 

 the hand-; not, however, without some resistance from its 

 strong and sharp-pointed bill : both male and female are 

 captured in this manner. 



The egg varies considerably in colour, some specimens 

 being of a reddish grey, thickly covered with streaks and 

 blotches of Indian red, deepest at the larger end ; others 

 are of a drab colour, finely speckled with the same deep 

 red. The young remain in the nest, or breeding- place, 

 untU capable of flight : they are at first covered with long 

 white down, which gradually disappears as the bird ad- 

 vances in growth and acquires its first plumage of white, 

 marked on the back and wings with transverse bracket- 



