118 



THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



No. 144. Female. Kaine Island. 



No. 482. Male. Admiralty Island. 



Eyes black ; flesh of throat red. Stomach contained fish. I shot this bird from 

 the pinnace while with several others. It was hovering over a shoal of fish. A Noddy 

 and Black-headed Terns, and a Puffin or Petrel, larger than a Cape-Pigeon, were also 

 fishing.] 



The series before us, so far as it goes, tends to show that this smaller Frigate-bird 

 may remain distinct from its larger brother, although we af\: not aware of any other 

 obvious points of difference than those of size, and, as has been pointed out to us by 

 Captain Legge, of a white patch on the flanks, which appears only on the smaller species. 



The specimens measure as follows : — 



The bill of Fregata minor is also narrower at the base, and more feeble. 



[At Eaine Island there was a rookery of this Frigate-bird in the centre, of about thirty 

 or forty nests. There were eggs in the nests ; and all the young, but one or two, were 

 perched on the branches of a low shrub ; these had red heads, and looked very like 

 vultures at first sight. The nests were formed of sticks laid on the tops of small bushes, 

 about one foot from the ground.] 



2. Phaethomtid^e. 



3. Phaethon cethereus, Linn. 



Phaethon cethereus, Scl. et Salv., Proo. Zool. Soc, 1878, p. 651. 



[a. Ascension Island, March 1876. 

 No. 143. Female (young). Eaine Island. 



Eyes black ; legs white ; claws black ; bill dark brown colour. The only one seen on 

 the Island. 



