3o4 FKEGA1I1>.«. 



nests being comprised of a few small sticks collected from the shrubs and herbaceous plants 

 which alone clothe the island, and placed either on the ground or on the plants a few inches 

 above it. The eggs, generally one but occasionally two in number, are of a pure white, not so 

 chalky in appearance as those of the Gannet, and nearly of the same shape at both ends. Upon 

 one occasion I killed the old birds from a nest that contained a young one ; on visiting the spot 

 1 found the young bird removed to another nest, the proprietors of which were feeding it as if it 

 had been their own ; I am sure of this fact, because there was no other nest near it containing 

 two young birds. Some of the eggs were quite fresh, while others had been so far sat on that 

 we could not blow tliem, and many of the young birds must have been hatched some two or 

 three weeks. We regarded these birds as the ' I''alcons of the sea,' for we repeatedly saw them 

 compel the Terns, Boobies and Gannets to disgorge their prey, and then adroitly catch it before 

 it fell to the ground or water. We never saw them settle on the water, but constantly soaring 

 round antl round, apparently on the watch for wliat the smaller birds were bringing home. I 

 ha\ e found in their pouches young turtles, fish, cuttle-lish and small crabs.' " 



In the report of the " \'oyage of H.M.S. Challenger," Messrs. Sclater and Salvin quote the 

 following notes of Mr. (now Sir) John Murray, one of the naturalists of the " Challenger Expedi- 

 tion :" — " Frci^aia ;;;/;/(i;-, male, Raine Island : Legs and feet black ; bill grey ; skin of throat red, 

 eyes red. The skin of the throat is of a lighter red in the male than in the female. The stotnach 

 contained remains of cuttlefish, Spivnhx and a fish. Female, young female and nesting female: 

 Feet red ; eyes red. The bill and feet of the young birds are of a white colour, with a shade of 

 blue; eyes blaclc. In the adult birds the male has the feet and eyes black, the female has those 

 parts red. This holds good in all our specimens. 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 Hsh. At Kaine 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 X'ultures at first sight. The nests were formed of sticks, laid on the tops 

 of small bushes, about one foot from the ground." 



Mr. James Walker, R.N., of H.M. Sur\eying-ship " Penguin," in " The Bird Life of Adelc 

 Island, North-western Australia," remarks as follows : — " Last, and most interesting of all, came 

 the breeding place of the Frigate-bird, Tachvpctcs iiiiiioi-, Gmelin. These hue birds had been 

 noticed while we were wading over the fiats, soaring high above all the other sea-fowl, many of 

 them indeed reduced to mere black specks against the blue sky. Extending for more than half 

 a mile along the middle of the island was a narrow strip of open land, almost free from the usual 

 high grass, and covered chieliy with the Ipomca. fiere the nests of the PVigate-birds were to 

 be seen in clusters or bunches of from five to six to as many as twenty together (very rarely 

 singly) and built directly on the ground of stalks of grass and Ipnnica, small twigs, etc. The 

 average dimensions of each nest were about a foot in height, by a little mnxe in diameter, though 

 frequently the clusters of old nests, which were evidently used for a succession of years, formed 

 masses of very considerable size. As in the case of the Gannets and Cormorants, the hollow in 

 the nests was very slightly defined, and in each was deposited a single egg (never more that I 

 could observe), pure white in colour, very thin shelled, and with only a slight limy coating. A 

 few of the eggs were new-laid and easily recognisable by their delicate and beautiful appearance, 

 but the great majority were very ' hard set,' and there were a great many young birds in the 

 nests. These when just out of the egg were quite naked like the young Gannets, which they 

 then greatly resembled ; when more advanced they were covered with a scanty white down, 

 and had a conspicuous saddle-shaped band of dark grey feathers across the baclf and scapular 

 region. Nearly all the brooding birds were females, some of them in ([uite immature dress; 



* Ibis. 1894, p. 258. 



