238 Stray Feathers; [ 



Emu 

 St April 



relieve each other often. The birds were very tame, and came 

 into the tents after flies and crumbs regularly. The non-sitting 

 birds often came on to my bunk, and even on my knees, in tent.) 

 They hatched three young, which were fed regularly by the four 

 birds that were partners at the nest. After the young left the 

 nest two of them were attached to female or grey birds' party, 

 and the other was fed by full-plumaged male. Both the bright 

 blue birds lost their bright colours after a time and got a rusty 

 brown. As to these birds losing the blue plumage, this does not 

 always happen, as I have seen a male keep his colours all the 

 year, but in my opinion this is exceptional. — H. W. Ford, 

 R.A.O.U-. 



A Greater Frigate-Bird Obtained in Western Australia. — After 

 stormy weather a female of this species settled on the bank of the 

 Swan River at Perth on 4th May, 1917, and allowed itself to be 

 captured. It was placed in a crate and brought to the Museum, 

 and when approached kept snapping through the bars of its cage 

 with its savage-looking hooked bill. As these sea-birds do not 

 live in captivity, and this was the first bird of the species to be 

 obtained in the State, it was killed, and is now on exhibition in 

 the Museum. The great confusion with regard to the species of 

 Frigate-Birds, which has always existed, has to a large extent 

 been dispelled by Mr. G. M. Mathews's monograph on the genus, 

 published in his " Birds of Australia." This enables us to state 

 with practical certainty that the bird captured at Perth belongs 

 to the form which breeds on Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, 

 which Mathews has named Fregata minor listeri. (The un- 

 fortunate necessity of calling the larger bird minor is due to the 

 original naming of the species Pelecanus minor by Gmelin.) This 

 was the sub-species included by Mathews in his " Birds of 

 Australia " as the most probable form of the species to occur in 

 Australia. We can now state positively that this form is a 

 member of our avifauna. The colour of the soft parts of the 

 Christmas Island sub-species has not been described. In our 

 specimen the bill was slaty-grey, the feet pale flesh-coloured, and 

 the eyelids bright pink. The Greater Frigate-Bird is stated to 

 occur in Northern Australian seas, but it has not yet been found 

 breeding. Gould added the species to the Australian list, stating 

 that he had received specimens from Torres Strait, and there are 

 birds from that locality in the British Museum. After discussing 

 the records Mathews writes : — " Apparently the large form of 

 Fregata is a rare straggler in Australian waters, and I have seen 

 no specimens absolutely procured in Australia." Campbell records 

 the capture of one at Brighton, Port Phillip, Victoria, which is 

 now in the National Museum, Melbourne. It would be of interest 

 if it were examined in connection with Mr. Mathews's monograph 

 to determine whether it is also a specimen of F. m. listeri. — W. B. 

 Alexander. 



