17G NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Fregata aquila (Linnaeus) 



Alan-o'-war Bird 



Pelecanus aquilus Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:133 

 Fregata aquila A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 128 



fregd'ta, Ital., frigate; a'quila, Lat., eagle; probably aquilus, dark, swarth}- 



Description. Adult male: Black, glossy above. Female: Brownish 

 black, lesser wing coverts grayish brown; breast and upper belly white. 

 Young: Similar to female, but with the head and neck white. 



Length 40 inches; extent 84-96; wing 23-27 ; tail 15-19, forked 8 inches, 

 or more; bill 4.5-6; tarsus i. 



This species breeds in the tropics and is common on some of the Florida 

 Keys, sometimes wanders northward and has been captured in Kansas, 

 Ohio and Nova Scotia. Two specimens only have been taken in New 

 York, the first on Faulkner's island, by Captain Brooks, in 1859 [sec Am. 

 Nat. 9 : 470], the second was shot by Mr Joseph P. Miller near the lighthouse 

 of Gardiners island, August 4, 1886, and is now in the American Museum 

 of Natural History. 



Order ANSERES 



Lamellirostral Swimmers 



Order Anseriformes, Sharpe's Hand-List 



Bill lamellate, or fitted along the edges with a series of flutings, with 

 a membranous covering, and a nail or dentrum at the tip; feet palmate, the 

 front toes being webbed; hallux, or hind toe, free and elevated; wings of 

 moderate length with 10 functional primaries and a remicle; secondaries 

 about 19, the fifth wanting; legs short, the knees buried in the general 

 body covering, and the tibiae feathered nearly to the joint ; position of legs 

 nearer center of body than in grebes and cormorants, but not so central 

 as in gulls and placed far to the side of the broad body, giving them a 

 peculiar waddling gait; neck usually long; plumage soft and dense, especially 

 on the breast, with a copious covering of down; palate desmognathous ; 

 sternum long and broad; pelvis large; oil gland tufted ; carotids two ; ambiens, 

 femorocaudal and its accessory and seinitendinosus mitscles present ; gizzard 

 large and very inuscular; tongue large and flesh)', with fully developed 

 glossohyal bone. 



This order contests with the order Gallinae the place of greatest economic 

 importance among birds. It comprises all the so called waterfowl, and 

 their general appearance and habits are well known through their familiar 



