360 ORNITHOLOGY. 



with each other exactly in their specific characters, and readily dis- 

 tinguishable from the well-known species of the Atlantic coast. 



This bird was first described by Latham, from a specimen in the 

 collection of Sir Joseph Banks, in General Synopsis of Birds, III, p. 

 592, as the " Palmerston Frigate Pelican," but without a systematic 

 appellation. Subsequently, Gmelin named it Pelecanus Palmerstoni, 

 as above cited. Latham's specimen was evidently a female, and from 

 the description, was quite identical with that sex of our present spe- 

 cimens. 



From the preceding species, the bird now before us may be distin- 

 guished by its inferior size, though not so small as Tachypetes Ariel, 

 Gould. Its quill and tail feathers are much narrower, and its gular 

 pouch much larger. The latter character may not, however, be en- 

 tirely reliable specifically, as its greater development may be charac- 

 teristic of the male of this species, and of others of its genus during 

 the breeding season, and of a similar character to the increased size 

 and apparently more excited condition of analogous appendages in 

 various other birds at that period, as for instance, the domestic Turkey, 

 and also the Wild Turkey of North America. Numerous birds have 

 bare spaces and wattles on the head and neck, in all of which we sus- 

 pect that the size, and in some measure the color of those appendages 

 are dependent on the season. In the Pigeons of the Genus Carpo- 

 pJicKja, the fieshy protuberances on the bill and its base, we much sus- 

 pect, assume the sexual and seasonal character to which we allude. 

 In a degree, this development of appendages in the breeding season, 

 is analogous to the growth of horns in the Deers at the same period, 

 and to be lost when it subsides. 



Both Dr. Pickering and Mr. Peale frequently allude to the present 

 bird, and though generally under the head of Tacliypetes aquila, both 

 intimate doubts respecting the identity of the birds of the Atlantic 

 and of the Pacific Oceans. Mr. Peale's observations are especially in- 

 teresting and valuable, and as they undoubtedly mainly relate to the 

 species now before us, we lay them entire before the reader : 



" This remarkable bird seems to occupy the entire intertropical cir- 

 cuit of the globe. We saw it at all the coral islets which we passed 

 or visited in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is to be regretted that 

 we have not the means of comparing specimens collected in different 

 localities (ours were all collected in the Pacific Ocean) ; for, notwith- 



