The Bird Book/Tropic Birds

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. Phccthon americanus.

Range. Tropical regions, breeding in the Bahamas, 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 extent 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*!!3 Yellow - bill ? d Tropic Bird ground color. Size 2.10x1.45. Data Coney Is ^ Red-billed Tropic Bird

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TOTJPALMATE SWIMMERS

113. RED-BILLED TROPIC BIRD. Phcethon cethereus.

Range. Tropical seas, chiefly in the Pacific Ocean; north to southern

California.

They breed on several islands in the Gulf of California. This species differs

from the preceding in having a red bill, and the back being barred with black.

Their plumage has a peculiar satiny appearance and is quite dazzling when

viewed in the sunlight. They are strong fliers and are met with, hundreds of miles from land. They often rest upon the water, elevating their long tails to keep them from getting wet. They nest, as do the preceding species, on rocky islands and are said to also build their nests in trees or upon the ground. The single egg that they lay has a creamy ground and is minutely dotted with chestnut. Pale purplish size 2.40 x 1.55. Data. Daphone

Is., Galapagos Is., South Pacific, March 6, 1901. Egg laid in hole of a sea cliff.

The eggs are easily told from those of the yellow-billed by their much larger

size. Collector, R. H. Beck.

[113.1] RED-TAILED TROPIC BIRD. Phcethon rubricaudus.

Range. Tropical regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, accidental off

the coast of Lower California.

This is a singularly beautiful species resembling the latter except that the

central tail feathers are bright red, with the extreme tips white. During

August and September they breed in large colonies on small islands in the South Seas. On Mauritius Island they build their nests either in the trees or place them on the ground; the nest is made of seaweed, sticks and weeds; numbers of them nest on

.*'.>* "*. f JK32WHB^^^V Laysan Is., of the Hawaiian

group, concealing their nests on the ground under overhanging brush.

The single egg has a pale purplish ground speckled with brown.

Pale purplish ground color

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