Order STEGANOPODES.] 
[Eam. PHAETHONID^. 
PHAETHON EUBEICATJDA. 
(RED-TAILED TROPIC BIRD.) 
Phaeton mhricauda, Bodd. Tabl. PI. Enl. p. 57 (1783). 
Bed-tailed Tropic Bird, Lath. Gen. Syn. vol. hi. pt. 2, p. 618 (1785). 
Phaeton phcenicur os, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. ii. p. 583 (1788). 
Phaeton aethereus, Bloxh. Voy. Blonde, App. p. 251 (1826). 
Phcenicuros ruhricauda, Bonap. Consp. vol. ii. p. 183 (1857). 
Phaeton phcenicurws, Gonld, Handb. B. of Austr. ii. p. 501 (1865). 
Phaethon ruhricauda, Salvin, Cat. Strickl. Coll. p. 511 (1882), 
Exempt, ex N. Z. Omnino sericeo-albus, rosaceo-tinctus : remigibus concoloribus fuscis ; regione ocnlari nigra, 
antice semilunat^, postice longitudinaliter products ; rectricibus duabus intermediis longissimis intense 
mbris, scapis nigris : rostro rubro : pcdibus flavis, membranis interdigitalibus nigris. 
New-Zealand specimen. General plumage silky or satiny white, with a delicate roseate or salmon tint over the 
entire surface ; a lunate spot of velvety black in front of the eyes, and a broken streak of the same above 
and beyond them ; on the flanks and under tail-coverts some of the feathers largely centred with slaty 
black, leaving on the sides an even, narrow margin of white, which broadens at the tip. The scapulars have 
their shafts black in their basal portion ; so have the outer secondaries ; on the long inner secondaries the 
black spreads into a broad irregular stripe down the centre of each feather, running olF to a fine point about 
half an inch from the tip. The two middle tail-feathers are white at the base, with a black central streak, 
but at a distance of two inches from the root the webs suddenly contract, and these feathers are then pro- 
duced, to a length of thirteen inches beyond the cuneiform tail, as rigid bright red plumes with black shafts, 
and becoming somewhat paler at the tips ; the lateral tail-feathers also have black shafts, changing to white 
an inch from the tips. Bill bright coral-red, shaded with brown in the nasal groove ; legs and feet black, as 
is also the entire skin of the bird under the feathers. Total length (without the elongated tail-plumes) 21 
inches ; wing, from flexure, 13 ; tail 4 (to end of central plumes, 17) ; bill, along the ridge 2’5, along the 
edge of lower mandible 3'3 ; tarsus 1 ; middle toe and claw 2'25. 
Young. Silky white, without any of the roseate blush mentioned above ; the whole of the upper surface broadly 
barred with black ; the primaries having the black of their shafts expanded into a spatulate form at the tips. 
In the list of the Birds of New Zealand compiled by Mr. G. R. Gray and published in ‘ The Ibis ’ 
for July 1862, the Red-tailed Tropic bird was included among the species of Pelecanidae, the habitat 
assigned being Norfolk and Nepean Islands. On the publication of my ‘Essay on the Ornithology of 
New Zealand ’ (1865), in the absence of any positive evidence of its occurrence in our seas, I decided 
to omit this bird from our list of species, and it was struck out accordingly. 
It was re-introduced by myself in 1878*, on the authority of a specimen received from the late 
Mr. Henry Mair, and now in my collection. This bird (apparently a male in full plumage) is the one 
described at the head of this article. It was shot by Mr. Mair from the deck of a schooner during a 
calm, off the Three Kings, a group of islets a few miles north of New Zealand, the furthermost 
* Traus. N.-Z. Inst. vol. x. pp. 219, 220. 
