170 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



states that in his Pelccanus jnscator there are fourteen rectrices while 

 the type of Sula ahhotti (the only specimen available) possesses sixteen. 

 The name Pelecanvs ■piscator Linne, therefore, is still available for the 

 Red-footed booby. 



3. Sula leucogastra plotus (Forster). 



Pelecamis plotus Forster, Descrip. anim., 1844, p. 278. (Near New Caledonia). 



An adult bird was taken on Tekokoto, Paumotu Islands, 26 

 October, and another was preserved as a skeleton from Mehetia, in 

 the Society Islands during November, 1899. The skin from Tekokoto, 

 with other birds examined from the Hawaiian Group and elsewhere 

 in the Pacific, agrees with Mathews's description of the Australian 

 form (Birds of Australia, 1915, 4, pt. 3, p. 234) and differs from birds 

 from the Atlantic region, in darker coloration above and in being 

 slightly larger in size. No specimens have been examined from 

 Australia in the present connection, but it is assumed that they are 

 the same as the bird from the Paumotu Group. The difference in 

 color between these birds, and those from localities in the Atlantic 

 Ocean is well marked, and the races thus indicated seem to be well 

 defined. 



FREGATIDAE. 



4. Fregata minor palmerstoni (Gmelin). 



Pelecamis palmerstoni Gmelin, Syst. nat., 1789, 1, pt. 2, p. 573. (Palmerston 

 Island). 



One specimen was taken, a female labeled "Polynesia." This bird 

 has the throat and breast white, and the abdomen black. The culmen 

 measures 117 mm., the wing 595 mm. A specimen in the U. S. N. M. 

 from Kaui and two others from Laysan Island, in the Hawaiian 

 Group, have the feathers of the "wing bar" with paler edgings than 

 in this bird, and with a larger series it may be possible to recognize 

 the form named strumosa by Hartert, as Mathews has done. In 

 addition these three northern birds have a metallic sheen on the 

 feathers of the back which is lacldng in the specimen from Polynesia. 



