36 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
were sitting on the branches near those just mentioned, and had it universally distended. These often 
did not attempt to fly away till our people were so near them as to be able to knock them down with 
a stick ; and when they endeavoured to get on the wing, they frequently entangled themselves in such 
a manner among the branches that they fell to the ground, from which they could not raise themselves, 
and were caught. Those which flew away were observed to continue the distension of the pouch, and 
those which were caught did not alter it. It subsided only when they were dead. 
“ The eggs are white.” 
The species was observed at Pitcairn’s Island, at San Bias and Mazatlan. 
Tachypetes leucocephalus. Vieill . 
Pelecanus leucocepbalus. Gmel., Syst. Nat. vol. 1. p. 572. sp. 17. 
White-headed Frigate Pelican. Lath., Gen. Hist. vol. 10. p. 413. sp. 15. 
The following extracts, giving the details of the examination of a specimen of this bird, are takers 
fram the same manuscript as the preceding: 
“ The extent between the tips of the wings is six feet five inches. The h ides are black ; the pupil 
a dull milk-white ; the bill and legs a leaden grey. 
“ The space between the folds of the peritoneum was filled with adipose substance, which in the 
fissure of the liver was nearly two lines thick. The right extremity of the thick muscular stomach, 
which is not sufficiently different in texture, or separated by so defined a boundary, as to entitle it to 
the name of gizzard, contained nevertheless a collection of small portions of lava, and two hemisphe* 
rical pearly bodies, along with some triturated fish muscle, and claws of crustaceous animals. In the 
proper cavity of the stomach were the remains of the long spines of the bones of some fish, and a 
considerable number of vermes, which lived in fresh water sixteen hours after having been taken out of 
the stomach. 
“ The liver, in texture and colour, differed not from the human. The gall-bladder hung loosely 
under the lowest part of the right lobe, and its duct entered the duodenum, after it had made a long 
convolution. There were but faint traces of the pancreas. The two cceca were very short, and about 
an inch and a half from the amis ; the cloaca a little on the left side of the rectum, close to the anus. 
Its internal structure appeared to be made up of small vesicular particles joined together, of unequal 
thickness, with deep clifts or cells in various parts. The upper part of the ureters was filled with 
the white substance which no doubt colours th e faces ; the lower part entered the rectum close to the 
anus. Where the trachea divides into the two bronchia, a thick prominent cartilage defends the cavity 
of each, and the rest of the bronchial cartilages are thicker than those of the trachea, 
but do not extend round the posterior part of the tube, which was plain and filled up by 
a transparent membrane. The anterior ventricle of the heart might be said to be only 
a sort of pouch, placed upon the anterior part of the posterior one, in this manner. 
Its valves were fleshy, with a small tendinous margin. Its cavity did not extend 
so low as that of the left. The valves of the pulmonary artery resembled the semi- 
lunar ones of the aorta, which were accurately shut, and seemed well adapted 
to prevent the least reflux of blood. The corpora sesamoidea were very distinct. The cells 
between the valves and the root of the artery were very deep, and there was a contraction of 
the diameter of the aortic immediately above, whilst the thick columna carnea of the ventricle formed 
a solid support to the base and lower surface of the valves. The left arteria innominata went off 
from the aorta at its origin ; the right one extending about a quarter of an inch above ; both extending 
outwards, and dividing into three nearly equal branches, the carotid, cervical, and subclavian. The 
two vertebral were seen going off from the aorta where it makes its curvature, Portions of one or 
more Tania were found in the intestinal canal. 
