230 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
About Grenada it is not rare, and breeds commonly on “ Mouchoir 
Quarre ” and the Labaye Rocks. Wells says that formerly numbers 
of the dried young of this species used to be brought into the 
market at Grenville (Labaye), obtained on the former islet. He 
says of some he caught on Labaye Rocks: “ The birds on being 
brought out into the light appeared to be quite foolish, and, beyond 
a feeble attempt to bite, seemed to make no effort to escape. I 
kept them alive for some days; they would take no food during the 
day, remaining perfectly quiet; but at night they fed on scraps of 
fish, and at intervals uttered a peculiar cry like a cat-howl.” 
This little bird when Hying skims along close to the surface of 
the water, acting in every way much like its larger northern 
relatives. 
The single egg is dull white in color. 
Phaethon americanus Grant. Yellow-billed Tropic-bird. 
_There is a skin of this bird in the British museum which was 
procured on St. Vincent in 1890, by Mr. G. Whitfield Smith, F. L. S., 
the present commissioner of the island of Carriacou. There are no 
other records. 
Phaethon aethereus Linn. Paille-en-queue ; Bo’s’n; Red¬ 
billed Tropic-bird. — This bird is occasionally seen at Barbados. 
One was captured near Chancery Lane after a gale in 1877 but was 
not preserved. 
In February, March, and April it is common along the leeward 
coast of St. Vincent, where it breeds in holes in the cliffs. There 
is a considerable colony of them near Old Woman’s Point, just 
west of Kingstown, and another at Layou. 
At Bequia they breed in numbers in the inaccessible cliffs of 
Bequia Head, but I did not find them elsewhere. Usually they are 
not very common among the Grenadines, but great numbers breed 
on Battowia and Balliceaux, and there are other colonies on Frigate 
Island, Rose Rock, Kick-’em-Jenny, and Les Tantes, between Carri¬ 
acou and Grenada. It is locally common about the cliffs of the last- 
named island. 
The wing beats of this and the preceding species are continuous 
and rather rapid, somewhat suggesting the flight of certain ducks. 
When near the cliffs, however, they often sail about, after the 
fashion of Noddies (Anous). Both the Yellow-billed and the Red¬ 
billed Tropic-birds are often met with very far from land. 
