FRIGATE BIRD. 59 
Adult female —Head and neck all round and all upper-parts dark ; throat ashy ; 
lower neck, breast, and sides of body pure white ; middle of lower-breast, abdomen, 
and flanks black ; the feathers of the head are shorter than in the male and are 
comparatively dull; brown collar on back of neck; the feathers of the back are 
not conspicuously elongated and lack the brilliant sheen of the lanceolate plumes 
of the male ; innermost secondaries brownish ; the lesser and median coverts are 
brownish with paler margins, forming a somewhat conspicuous bar parallel to the 
shoulder. Culmen 107 mm., wing 599, tail 410, middle toe 54. 
Immature male—Head and neck all round white, pouch showing ; breast with 
rusty patch ; lower-breast black as are sides of body ; centre of abdomen, lower 
flanks, and vent white; under tail-coverts black with small white tips; rest of 
upper-parts dusky-brown and black according to wear ; median wing-coverts brown- 
ish forming a narrow bar. Coloration of iris, bill, and feet unrecorded. Culmen 
92 mm., wing 570, tail 350, middle toe 49. (New Zealand.) (Another collected by 
J. Macgillivray at Oomaga Island, Torres Straits, agrees but is slightly larger.) 
Nestling—Pure white down. 
Next stage—Scapulars and mantle of brown feathers with subterminal bars ; 
round the eyes, over fore-head and chin naked. 
Next—Red down comes on the naked part of the head but not on the chin ; 
secondaries commence as black feathers. 
Next.—Larger, and tail-feathers begin black. 
Next—The red extends over the top of the head and on to the face; the 
scapulars are fully developed and the feathers of the back growing : these are dark 
brown with lighter tips. The tail has rapidly lengthened, being 150 mm. long and 
showing slight but decided fork, their feathers being black with a blue sheen ; the 
wing-coverts are more or less greyish-white throughout, the primaries and secondaries 
long and black with a metallic sheen ; the breast feathers just beginning to show. 
Next.—Larger and similar to preceding ; the tail, more forked, measures 214 mm.; 
the head is darker and the dark breast-feathers show more prominently, but 
otherwise the under parts are still covered with down. 
Flying young—Head nearly all white, with a few red feathers remaining ; 
upper-breast dark rusty-red ; brown on sides of body ; abdomen white ; vent black. 
Immature—The patch of dark rusty-red on the upper chest vanishes and 
the dark colour goes from sides, but immediately black feathers begin to be seen 
on the abdomen. 
These notes are taken from a series in the Rothschild Museum collected by 
Schauinsland at Laysan. From other localities intervening stages can be seen. 
The adult male is wholly black, with lanceolate breeding plumes on the back showing 
strong metallic gloss. The adult female has the breast white, the throat not fully 
black and no breeding plumes, though a metallic sheen is noticeable on some of the 
back feathers ; she is larger and has no gular pouch. Immature males show this 
coloration, but are distinguishable by the possession of an orange gular pouch and 
the presence of lanceolate metallic breeding plumes. It is also certain that the 
immature of both sexes breed when in the white-headed stage noted above, but 
then the male has only a partially developed pouch and scarcely differs from the 
female save in size. 
Nest.—Placed in trees or on the ground ; rather bulky, composed of sticks. 
Eggs—Clutch one, white ; covered with creamy lime; axis 66 to 68 mm., 
diameter 45 to 46. 
Distribution and forms—Throughout the tropical oceans, and the criticism of 
Rothschild, Oberholser, etc., tends to accept the novel arrangement proposed by 
Mathews in 1915 whereby four species were discriminated from the previously 
accepted one only, and of the present species many subspecies, as follows : Fm. minor 
Gmelin from the West Indies; F. m. nicolli Mathews, from the South Atlantic Ocean 
