Tropic Bird

Like the albatross and the tropic-bird, forever on the wing, ❋ Various (N/A)

He taught his little pupil their names and their habits; he showed her the lovely Madagascar teal, with its orange breast and emerald back; he bade her admire the flight of the red-winged tropic-bird, which sometimes strays to those regions and flies in a few hours from Mauritius to Rodrigues, whither, after a journey of two hundred leagues, it returns to sleep under the veloutier in which its nest is hidden. ❋ Unknown (1900)

The tropic-bird, often called the boatswain, or phaëton, also climbs to great heights, and is seldom found out of these latitudes. ❋ Frederick O'Brien (1900)

On the fourteenth they saw a "tropic-bird," which the sailors thought was never seen more than twenty-five leagues from land; but it must be remembered, that, outside of the Mediterranean, few of the sailors had ever been farther themselves. ❋ Unknown (1891)

I know of this only in the fowl, swan, tropic-bird, owl, ruff and reeve, and cuckoo. ❋ Charles Darwin (1845)

Notwithstanding we were so far advanced to the northward, we saw this day a tropic-bird, and also several other kinds of sea-birds, such as puffins, sea-parrots, sheerwaters, and albatrosses. ❋ Robert Kerr (1784)

The tail-feathers of the cock, and of the tropic-bird, are also used in the same manner; but the most valuable are those which have the handle made of the arm or leg bones of an enemy slain in battle, and which are preserved with great care, and handed down from father to son, as trophies of inestimable value. ❋ Robert Kerr (1784)

At this time, we saw a tropic-bird, and a dolphin, the first that we had observed during the passage. ❋ Robert Kerr (1784)

The chiefs of inferior rank have likewife a fhort cloak, which refembles the former, and is made of the long tail-feathers of the cock, the man-of - war bird, and the tropic-bird, having a broad border of fmall yellow and red feathers, and aJfo a collar of the fame. ❋ Unknown (1784)

They failed from Cape Farewell on the 31 (1 of March, 1770, and had fine weather and a fair wind till the 9th of April, when they faw a tropic-bird. ❋ Unknown (1812)