TROPi'CK BIRD-. 
in general, that these birds have their bill and 
legs red ; this is not invariably true, except of 
the Great, and the Red-Shafted species: for, 
in this smaller species, which is the most com* 
mon in the Isle of France, the bill is yellowish, 
like horn, and the legs are black. 
Of the beautiful Red-Sha/tedTropick Bird, 
we may hereafter be enabled to give an origi- 
nal figure and description. In the mean time, 
we shall present cur readers with what is known 
relative to Tropick Birds in general. 
Buffon opens his history of these birds with 
considerable animation. " W e have seen," 
says he, " birds travel from north to south • with 
boundless course, traversing all the climates of 
the globe: others we shall view, confined to 
the polar regions ; the last children of expiring 
Nature, invaded by the horrors of eternal ice! 
The present, on the contrary, seems to attend 
the car of the sun, under the burning Zone, 
defined by the Tropicks ;. flying, perpetually, 
amid the tepid Zephyrs, without straying' 
beyond the verge of the ecliptick, it informs 
the navigator of his approach to the flaming 
barriers of the solar track. Hence, it has been 
called 
