THE BIRD BOOK 
TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS. Order IV. STEGANOPODES 
TROPIC BIRDS. Family PHAETHONTIDAE 
Tropic Birds are Tern-like birds, having all the toes connected by a web, 
and having the two central tail feathers very much lengthened. 
112. Yellow-billed Tropic Bird. Phcethon 
americanus. 
Range. — Tropical regions, breeding in the Ba- 
hamas, West Indies and the Bermudas, casual in 
Florida and along the South Atlantic coast. 
The Tropic Birds are the most strikingly 
beautiful of all the sea birds; they are about 30 
inches in length, of which their long slender tail 
takes about 20 inches. They fly with the ease 
and grace of a Tern, but with quicker wing beats. 
They feed on small fish, which they capture by 
Dull purplish 
darting down upon, and upon snails which they 
get from the beach and ledges. They build their 
nests in the crevices and along the ledges of the 
rocky cliffs. While gregarious to a certain ex- 
tent they are not nearly as much so as the Terns. 
The nest is made of a mass of seaweed and weeds; 
but one egg is laid, this being of a creamy or pale 
purplish ground color, dotted and sprinkled with 
chestnut, so thickly as to often obscure the 
ground color. Size 2.10 x 1.45. Data. — Coney Is., 
Bermudas, May 1, 1901. Nest made of moss and seaweed in a crevice on 
ledge of cliff. Collector, A. H. Verrill. 
Yellow-billed Tropic Bird 
Red-billed Tropic Bird 
72 
