52 



I find the following entry in my diary for 1893 :- 



26th March.— We found ourselves early this morning in the spacious and picturesque harbour of 

 Rio. A string of Black Shags passed us as we were approaching our anchorage, and one or two laro- e 

 Gulls were hovering in the harbour, whilst high overhead birds called l Kites ' by the residents, but in 

 reality the great Frigate Bird {Tachypetes aquila), were soaring about. On landing, I was astonished 

 to see seven or eight of these ' vultures of the sea ' disporting themselves in the air inside the quay, 

 and within easy stone's-throw of the people who were crowding the thoroughfare. They were apparently 

 intent on floating garbage, and it was most interesting to watch their rapid evolutions on strong 

 pinions, sometimes hovering with slow flappings of the wings, the head being turned first to one side* 

 then to the other, often wheeling suddenly down, with their forked tails quickly opened, to within a 

 few yards of the bystanders, their crimson and yellow pouches being plainly visible as they came 

 near to us. 



Oeder PELECANIFOBMES.] 



[Family FBEGATIDJE. 



FREGATA ARIEL. 



(SMALL FEIGATE-BIED.) 



Tachypetes minor (Gmelin), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 185. 



The example taken on the Wakapuaka Coast in 1861, and still preserved in the Nelson 

 Museum, is, so far as I know, the only instance of the occurrence of this species in New Zealand. 



This bird is placed with Fr eg ata aquila in the 'Catalogue of Birds,' but my identification 

 of the species was confirmed by Dr. Finsch ('J. f. 0.,' 1874, pp. 174-216). 



Since that date, however, Dr. Finsch has come to the conclusion that this species 

 cannot be separated from F. aquila* 



This smaller form of Frigate-bird is rather plentiful in Torres Straits. 



Fregata ariel is generally confined to the eastern seas, from Madagascar to the Moluccas, 

 and southward to Australia, whilst the larger species (F. aquila) has a range all round the 

 world within the tropics, and, as we have seen, occasionally passes those limits. 



* Messrs. Eothschild and Hartert, in their valuable notes on the fauna of the Galapagos Islands (< Nov. Zool.,' 

 vol. xi., pp. 373-418), write :-" Dr. Finsch, in a very interesting popular article in the Ornithologische Monatsschrift, 

 1900, p. 452, declares that his studies have convinced him that there is only one species of Fregata; but he is 

 entirely mistaken. Either he did not see the difference, or the museum in which he made his studies had no 

 specimens of the small form." 



