PHAEl^HON.— PEBGATA. 139 



clicking or rattling sott»dg, something like the noise of an old-fashioned watchman's 

 rattle." 



The single egg is deposited on a bare rock in the cavity of a cliff; it is oval, the 

 ground-colour creamy-white or pink, covered with small dots of reddish-brown and 

 larger blotches or spots of purple or purplish-red. 



Fam. PREGATID^. 



The Frigate-birds, according to Mr. Ogilvie Grant (Cat. Birds Brit. Mas. xxvi. 

 p. 329), are to be distinguished from the rest of the Steganopodes by the strongly 

 forked tail, and by the deep emargination of the webs between the toes. Mr. Pycraft 

 adds the following osteological characters : — " Palatines fused at the posterior end only ; 

 a large vomer; no nasal hinge ; sternum broader than long; carina extending the whole 

 length of the corpus sterni ; furcula fused dorsally with the head of the coracoid, and 

 ventrally with the carina sterni.'' 



FREGATA. 



Freffata, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 506 (1760) ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 442 (1898). 

 Taehypetes, Vieill. Ana], pp. 63, 70 (1816). 



There is but one genus of Frigate-birds, and therefore the family-characters are the 

 same as those of the genus Fregata. The bill is somewhat Accipitrine, and is very 

 strongly hooked, with a deep lateral groove, near the base of which the linear nostrils 

 are situated. Another remarkable feature is the large bare gular pouch, which is 

 capable of considerable dilation. The tail consists of twelve feathers only, whereas 

 in other families of the Steganopodes the number varies considerably, and in the 

 Pelecanidse reaches to twenty-four. The tarsus in Fregata is very short and is clothed 

 with feathers ; and the margin of the claw of the middle toe is pectinated. 



Only two species of Fregata, a large one {F. aquila) and a small one {F. ariel), are 

 known. In many parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans they occur in the same area, 

 but the former alone is found off the American coasts. 



1. Fregata aquila. 



Man of War Bird, Edwards, Gleanings Nat. Hist. ii. p. 209, t. 309 \ 



Pelecarms aquilus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 216 '. 



Tachypetes aquilus, Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 316' j Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 51 *; 



Sumichr. La Nat. v. p. 235 !. 

 Tachypetes aquila, Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 233"; Frantz. J, f. Orn. 1869, p. 379'; Nutting, 



Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. p 405 '; vl. p. 378'. 

 Fregata aquila, Taylor, Ibis, 1859, p. 150'°; I860, p. 316"; Salv. Ibis, 1864, p. 374"; 1889, 



p. 376 '* ; Boucard, P. Z. S. 188*, p. 458 " ; Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 169 "; 



18* 



