Mr. R, Swinhoe on Amoy Ornithology. 57 



dorsique lanceolatis" ; and the young as " albo vel rufo varius ; 

 plumis capitis dorsique minus elongatis." We must hence infer 

 that the adult of both sexes is whole-coloured — that is to say, 

 without white head or belly-band, and that both have the beak, 

 throat, and feet red. Dr. Jerdon tells us (B. Ind. iii. p. 853) 

 of the large species having been once shot oflf the coast of Mala- 

 bar. His diagnosis looks as if were copied in part from Bona- 

 parte. It runs, " adult, entirely glossy black ; young bird with 

 the head, neck, and lower abdomen white, the rest of the body 

 glossy black. Length 37 inches; wing 26 j tail 15|. Bill 

 and feet red." 



Mr. Salvin, in his notes on the Sea-birds of British Honduras 

 (Ibis, 1864, p. 375), tells us that he "shot four old [Frigate-] 

 birds; two adult males in dark metallic chocolate-brown plumage, 

 and two with white underneath, the adult females ; no white- 

 headed immature birds were to be seen." 



Edward Burton, in a memoir on Pelecanus aquilus in the Lin- 

 nean 'Transactions' (vol. xiii. pp. 1-11), informs us that its 

 " predominating colour is black ; but the back of the male is 

 inclined to a glossy-green, similar to that of the common black 

 cock. The plumage of the female is more dusky ; and she dif- 

 fers from the male in having the abdomen and nearly the whole 

 of the head white. The eye and parts immediately surrounding 

 it are black. The beak is of a dirty-yellowish white. The feet 

 of the male are black ; those of the female, of a bluish white. 



If the same species is meant in these extracts, hei-e is a glo- 

 rious amount of irreconcileable confusion ! The Amoy specimen 

 was a female, and must have been a bird of the preceding year, 

 though it bore unmistakeable signs of immaturity. It is not 

 unlikely that the females of this group, as of many others among 

 birds, wear this immature plumage much longer than the males, 

 but eventually acquire the adult plumage which one hastily 

 considers peculiar to the males. I wonder if Burton identified 

 his sexes by dissection ; for he states that the male bird sits, and 

 that none but males were taken on shore at Ascension Island, 

 while the females were shot at sea — all his females having white 

 heads. Mr. Salvin says that in the breeding-places he explored 

 off British Honduras he saw up white-headed birds, which he 



