362 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



" Frigate Pelicans were seen in the month of January, on Enderby's 

 Island, and as it was destitute of trees, they had constructed their 

 rude nests on the ground. We are led to conclude, from the fact 

 that fresh eggs were obtained in each place, and young birds found 

 in various stages of growth, in the months of January and August, 

 besides others seen at intervening periods, that they have no fixed 

 season devoted to their broods in equatorial regions. 



" Mr. Audubon, who visited the breeding-places of the Frigate Peli- 

 cans, on the Florida Keys, which are coral islets analogous to those of 

 the Pacific Ocean, did not observe the males in the breeding season 

 to have the habit of inflating the gular pouch, a habit which struck 

 all of us who visited their nests on the coral islets of the Pacific Ocean, 

 as very remarkable, from their singular and bloody appearance. And 

 as he remarks, ' they are extremely silent,' we are led to believe that 

 there may be specific differences between the Frigate Birds of the two 

 great oceans, which have not yet been detected. They are the most 

 noisy, excepting the Terns {Sterna), of all the birds we saw breeding 

 on the coral islets of the Pacific Ocean. Their incubating a single 

 egg in regions near the equator, and two or three, ' more frequently 

 the latter number,' as Mr. Audubon remarks, in Florida, may be in 

 consequence of the variation of climate, which limits them to one 

 breeding season; but the bloody -looking pouch, and the scolding 

 croak, would always, we should suppose, betray the identity to per- 

 sons visiting their nests. 



" The subjoined wood-cut is from a sketch of a male Tacliypetes ob- 

 tained at Honden Island, in the Pacific Ocean, and represents the ap- 

 pearance of the gular pouch when inflated. The manner of inflation 

 is like that of the Cropper Pigeon." 



Dr. Pickering notices this bird at various localities in the Pacific 

 Ocean, and especially as occurring in large numbers at Wilkes's Island, 

 and at Sydney Island, in addition to the localities given by Mr. Peale. 

 He mentions having repeatedly observed it soaring at an immense 

 height in the air. 



It is probable that besides the two species now given, the natural- 

 ists of the Expedition may have seen another, the Tacliypetes Ariel, 

 Gould, though we are not able to determine that point from the notes 

 and journals in our possession. Dr. Pickering does, however, in seve- 

 ral instances, remark, that specimens seen by him were unusually 

 small; and such may have been the species to which we now allude, 



