ORNITHOLOGY. 
35 
into an oblong bag, tapering to the inferior extremity, having a thin external muscular coat, and a thick 
bed of glands intervening between it and the membranous. These glands appear to be distinct from 
each other. They resemble short fleshy cylinders arranged vertically to the long axis of the cavity. 
They are longest at the middle of the bag, and diminish towards each extremity, until they finally 
disappear. This cavity is the stomach, and its inferior extremity communicates by an opening in 
the right side with the duodenum, by the narrowed pyloric orifice. The intestinal convolutions are 
numerous. The cceca are two, about one inch and three-quarters long, bulging towards the upper 
extremity, and lying upon each side of the rectum .” 
Tachypetes aquilus. Vieill. 
Pelecanus Aquilus. Linn,, Syst. Nat . vol. 1. p. 216. sp. 2. — Lath., Ind. Orn. 
p. 885. sp. 1 0. 
Frigate bird. Albin, vol. 3. t. 80. 
La Fregate. Buff., PI. Enl. 961. 
“The pouch beneath the throat of this bird,” says Mr. Collie, “ is of a yellowish red colour, and 
when distended, the feathers on its upper and posterior sides are separated to some distance from each 
other, and exhibit very distinctly the quincuncial order in which they are implanted. On first looking 
at this pouch, I was a little surprised at finding it did not communicate with the mouth or fauces in 
any way that I could perceive. I succeeded in inflating it only by long and forcible blowing into the 
trachea. I desired the man who had the skinning of the specimens brought on board to inflate the 
pouch before commencing the skinning, and to let me know when he had advanced to the shoulders. 
He, however, dislocated the shoulder- joint first, when the distended pouch immediately collapsed. 
The trachea had been tied. As soon as I was informed of this, I had little doubt that the pouch had 
been inflated from the lungs ; and on observing two wide openings, one anterior to the humeral 
articulating face of the scapula, the other the usual opening of the joint, I hesitated not to infer that it 
was through the first of these the air had passed in, and that the dislocating of the joint, by which its 
capsular ligament was torn, had allowed the air to escape at the opening which corresponds to that on 
the head of the humerus, and which immediately leads, as well as the other just mentioned, into the 
centre of the scapula. I now opened the trachea immediately before the sternum, and again attempted 
inflation from that part, but in vain. I tried it also, but with no better success, from the larynx. I 
now examined with the blowpipe near the opening of the scapula, in the cellular substance under the 
skin, and soon detected a small opening that conducted the air to the pouch, which was readily 
inflated by blowing through the opening, and so long as it was shut, the pouch continued distended. 
That this opening was not artificial — the effect of the rupture of the hue membrane lining the 
air-bladder, was evident from its not opening directly into it, but only after a passage of some length, 
gradually enlarging. That this was the sole opening into the pouch appears proved from the fact, that 
after detaching the sac from all the parts beneath, i. e. all the parts excepting from the skin, it did not 
permit the gas to escape except by this opening, and that it continued to be capable of inflation 
from it. I was satisfied in discovering it on one side ; and of course inferred that it was similar in the 
other, the opening of the scapula being similar. 
“ Mr. Wolfe, who saw this bird in great numbers on the island of Isabella, near San Bias, informed 
me that the nest, on which many were sitting, consisted of a few small sticks placed horizontally upon 
the branches of shrubs or low trees, in some sheltered places, raised a foot or two above the ground, 
never close upon the earth. There was only one egg on, rather than in, it ; and the bird that was 
upon the nest did not seem to have the reddish pouch* under the throat. The birds with this pouch 
The females do not possess the pouch. See Linn. Trans, vol. 13. p. 2, 3. 
