FRKfiATA 3")r> 



but amon^ them were many line old cocks, conspicuous by their deep green-j;lossed black 

 pluma;,'e and scarlet throat pouches. A few stray Gannets, usually of the white species, had 

 taken up their (quarters for incubation anionf; the Frigate-birds, but were evidently regarded 

 with hut little favour by the legitimate occupants of the ground." 



" The tameness, or rather the indifference of tiiese birds, especially of tlie females, was 

 most surprising. As one walked among the nests the sitting birds nearest at hand merely 

 stretched out their necks, snapped their long slender hooked beaks, and uttered a croak like that 

 of the White Gannet ( Snld rvnihif's), but very much more feeble, while to obtain the egg it was 

 necessary to push the bird right off the nest, when it took wing without any apparent difficulty. 

 The birds on the adjoining nests, little more tlian arm's length distant, meanwhile took absolutely 

 no notice of the intruder. The young birds, when of any size, were much more vicious than 

 their parents, and energetically resisted any attempt to take them up, croaking and snapping 

 sharply with their bills. They were much infested with a large species of I.x'odfs, and a flat 

 brown parasitic fly closely resembling in general appearance the well-known Hippobosca eqniiia of 

 Europe, was plentiful about the nests, and was to be seen running over the feathers of the birds. 

 A large number of the eggs were collected and, when boiled hard, turned out by no means bad 

 eating, the ' white,' as is the case with the eggs of most sea-birds, being quite transparent and 

 jelly-like, and the Ifavoiu' not in the least degree rank or disagreeable." 



Mr. Bernard 11. Woodward, Director of the Perth Museum, W'estern Australia, has 

 kindly forwarded a photograph of a large breeding colony of Fici^ata arid, taken during a 

 visit of Mr. [. T. Tunney, the Museuni collector, to Bedout Island, lying off the coast of North- 

 western Australia in .\pril, 1901. .\pparently the nests are built in almost leafless, perhaps 

 dried and dead herbage, and about a dozen unoccupied nests in the foreground contained a single 

 white egg each. 



Dr. W. Macgilli\ray wrote as follows from Broken I lill. South-western New South Wales : — 

 " When passing between Cape Restoration and Restoration Island in October, igio, we saw 

 several Frigate-birds (Frci^ata arid ) sailing round the island ; more were seen waiting round the 

 rocky headlands of the Sir Charles Hardy Islands for home-coming Terns. When anchored 

 behind iiscape River Island I witnessed an encounter between one and a Lesser Crested Tern 

 ( S. media) ; the great bird buffeted the screaming Tern again and again, until the latter disgorged 

 three fish, which were easily caught, and instantly swallowed, by an expert double dive, when 

 he rose again in tlie air to resume his watch for other Terns. On the eastern side of Raine 

 Islet, near its centre, was a nesting place of this species at the time of my visit, 30th October ; 

 it was occupied by about fifty young birds, fully feathered, and able but as yet unwilling to fly, 

 a number of others were Hying about with the adult l)irds. The young birds seemed to be in 

 pairs, and the nests, which were much trampled and covered with excreta, were built up to six 

 inches or more, of interwo\en twigs, and were often placed on a little eminence. The young 

 birds were brown in general colouring, very like that of the lighter kinds of Wedge-tailed Eagles, 

 and their whole attitude and colouring reminded ^ne \ ery much of the Hawk tribe. They 

 were all of about the same age, and I should say that the nesting must begin in the early winter 

 months, and is contemporaneous with that of the Red-legged Gannet." 



While resident at Point Cloates, in North-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter sent me the 

 following notes : — "The appearance of the Lesser Frigate-bird (Taclivpdcs minor ) was a sure 

 indication of an approaching hurricane, or of very stormy weather further north, and they were 

 classed by the blacks, with other occasional \isitors at such times, as ' rain-brothers.' There 

 were numbers of them at Point Cloates at the commencement of the se\ere hurricane of the 25th 

 and 26th January, iSgS. Several hovering over the house were secured with a right and left 

 barrel shot, on the 31st March, 1899. A small flock" was also seen on the loth February, 1900. 



