tropic BiitD. 447 



3— RED-TAILED TROPIC BIRD— Pl. clxxxiii. 



Phaeton phcenicurns, Ind. Orn. ii. 894. Gm. Lin. i. 583. Nat. Misc. pl. 177. 

 Paille-en-Queue a brins rouges, Buf. viii. 357. 



. de l'Isle de France, Pl. enl. 979. 



Red-tailed Tropic Bird, Gen. Si/n. vi. 619. pl. 105. 



THE length of this species is two feet ten inches, of which the 

 two long tail feathers measure eighteen inches. Bill three inches and 

 a half long, and red ; plumage more or less of an elegant pale rose- 

 colour ; the crescent over the eyes as in the others, but somewhat 

 abrupt in the middle ; the ends of the scapulars marked with black ; 

 but what chiefly distinguishes the bird is the two middle long 

 tail feathers, which are of a beautiful deep red their whole length, 

 except the shafts and base, which are black ; the sides over the 

 thighs dusky ; legs black. 



This bird is seen frequently at large, as the first, but does not 

 seem to be so far spread. Our navigators met with them in various 

 places, though they were seldom seen on shore, except in the breed- 

 ing season, which is in September and October ; are found in great 

 numbers in the Island of Mauritius, where they make the nest in 

 the ground, under the trees ; the eggs two in number, yellowish 

 white, marked with rufous spots.* Mention has been made in another 

 place,t of the introduction of Paradise Grakles, into the Island of 

 Bourbon, from whence they spread into the Isle of Mauritius; at 

 first intended for the very useful purpose of destroying the locusts and 

 grasshoppers, which swarmed there to a great degree : the result of 

 their prodigious increase, and the unlooked for consequence of it, 

 has been there likewise mentioned. These birds, we are told, are 

 great enemies to the Tropic Birds, and M. de Querhoent had ocular 

 demonstration of it ; for being seated beneath a tree, on which were 

 perched a number of the Grakles, he observed a Tropic Bird come 

 to its hole, in order to go to the nest ; but the Grakles attacked the 



* Voy. to Mauritius, 66. Hist, des Ois. f See Paradise Grakle, vol. iii. p. 147. 



