PHAETHON,—FREGATA. 139 
clicking or rattling sounds, something like the noise of an old-fashioned watchman’s 
rattle.” 
The single egg is deposited on a bare rock in the cavity of a cliff; it is oval, the 
ground-colour creamy-white or pink, covered with small dots of reddish-brown and 
larger blotches or spots of purple or purplish-red. 
Fam. FREGATIDA. 
The Frigate-birds, according to Mr. Ogilvie Grant (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. 
p- 329), are to be distinguished from the rest of the Steganopodes by the strongly 
forked tail, and by the deep emargination of the webs between the toes. Mr. Pycraft 
adds the following osteological characters :—‘“ Palatines fused at the posterior end only ; 
a large vomer ; no nasal hinge; sternum broader than long; carina extending the whole 
length of the corpus sterni; furcula fused dorsally with the head of the coracoid, and 
ventrally with the carina sternt.” 
FREGATA. 
Fregata, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 506 (1760) ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 442 (1898). 
Tachypetes, Vieill. Anal. pp. 63, 70 (1816). 
There is but one genus of Frigate-birds, and therefore the family-characters are the 
same as those of the genus Fregata. The bill is somewhat Accipitrine, and is very 
strongly hooked, with a deep lateral groove, near the base of which the linear nostrils 
are situated. Another remarkable feature is the large bare gular pouch, which is 
capable of considerable dilation. The tail consists of twelve feathers only, whereas 
in other families of the Steganopodes the number varies considerably, and in the 
Pelecanide reaches to twenty-four. The tarsus in Fregata is very short and is clothed 
with feathers; and the margin of the claw of the middle toe is pectinated. 
Only two species of Fregata, a large one (f. aquila) and a small one (F. ariel), are 
known. In many parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans they occur in the same area, 
but the former alone is found off the American coasts. 
1. Fregata aquila. 
Man of War Bird, Edwards, Gleanings Nat. Hist. ii. p. 209, t. 309". 
Pelecanus aquilus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 216°. 
Tachypetes aquilus, Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 316°; Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 51‘; 
Sumichr. La Nat. v. p. 235°. 
Tachypetes aquila, Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 233°; Frantz. J. f. Orn. 1869, p. 379"; Nutting, 
Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. p 405°; vi. p. 378°. 
Fregata aquila, Taylor, Ibis, 1859, p. 150; 1860, p. 316"; Salv. Ibis, 1864, p. 374"; 1889, 
p: 376°; Boucard, P. Z.S. 1883, p. 458 ; Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U. 8. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 169"; 
18* 
