THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Phmthon rubricaudus novcehoUandice Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 243, 1912 ; 
Iredale, Trans. New Zeal. Inst., Vol. XLV., 1912, p. 86, 1913. 
ScceophcBthon ruhricauda novoehollandioe Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 100, 1913. 
Distribution. [North-eastern Australia ?] Eaine Island ; Lord Howe Island ; Norfolk 
Island ; Kermadec Islands. 
Adult male. General colour pinkish-white, a black patch from the angle of the mouth, 
extending upwards to the eye and behind it ; centre of flank-feathers and 
secondaries black ; long central tail-feathers red with black shafts. Bill red ; eyes 
brown; feet light grey and black. Culmen 68mm., wing 347, tail 112, middle 
feathers not included, tarsus 31 (Lord Howe Island). 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Nestling. Covered with whitish down. 
Nest. A depression in the sand, placed under a shelving rock. 
Eggs. Clutch one ; white, covered more at the top end with purplish-black, or covered 
with purplish-black all over. Axis 68-70 mm. ; diameter 48-49. 
Breeding-season. July (Raine Island) ; November, December and January (Kermadec, 
Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands). 
Though birds from New South Wales are listed in the Catalogue of the 
Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXVI., as received from the Australian 
Museum, Sydney — ^North, the ornithologist of that Museum, would not accept 
the accuracy of the labelling and has met with no record of the bird on the 
New South Wales coast. Stragglers might arrive from Lord Howe Island, 
the nearest breeding locality. 
The species, however, breeds at Raine Island, North Queensland, and 
as no series are available, these are regarded as referable to the bird found 
breeding on Lord Howe, Norfolk, and the Kermadec Islands. Quite a litera- 
ture has been compiled about these latter, and I quote first the two notes 
relating to the Raine Island bird, both recorded by the Macgillivrays, with 
an interval of fifty years between them. 
Gould quoted Macgillivray the elder’s notes thus : “ This Tropic bird 
was found by us on Raine’s Islet, where, during the month of June, about 
a dozen were procured. Upon one occasion three were observed performing 
sweeping flights over and about the island, and soon afterwards one of 
them alighted. Keeping my eye upon the spot, I ran up and found a male 
bird in a hole under the low shelving margin of the island bordering the 
beach, and succeeded in capturing it after a short scuffle, during which it 
snapped at me with its beak, and uttered a loud, harsh, and oft-repeated 
croak. It makes no nest, but deposits its two eggs on the bare floor of the 
hole, and both sexes assist in the task of incubation. It usually returns 
from sea about noon, soaring high in the air, and wheeling round in circles 
before alighting. The eggs are blotched and speckled with brownish-red 
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