THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Nothing appears to have been written about this bird since the time of Gould. 
Mr. Tom Carter tells me that he picked up a specimen on the beach at 
Point Cloates, North-west Australia, on July 31st, 1894. 
The type-male figured and described was collected on Breaksea Island, 
off Albany, West Australia, on December 15th, 1908, by Mr. Tom Carter. 
The first appearance of this species in hterature is when Latham (1785, p. 410) 
gave the following : — 
Frigate Petrel. Procellaria fregatta Linn., I., p. 212, 2. 
Length eight inches and a half. Bill one inch ; slender and not greatly hooked ; the 
top of the head, and hind part of the neck, as far as the shoulders, blueish ash-colour ; back 
and wing-coverts brown ; rump hoary blue ; sides of the head above the eye, and all the 
under-parts, white ; under the eye a trace of blueish ash-colour ; the tail, when spread, seems 
hollowed out in the middle, but scarcely what may be called forked ; legs black ; on the 
middle of each web a yellowish mark. , 
Such is a description of a bird among the drawings of Sir Joseph Banks, which I liken to 
that mentioned by Lirmseus, of which he merely says, that it is less than the Stormy Petrel, 
black above and white beneath. Pound in latitude 37 south. In a second drawing I 
observe the rump to be very pale, nearly approaching to white. 
Gmelin included this under P. fregata, but in the Index Ornithologicus, Vol. II., 
p. 826, 1790, Latham named it Procellaria marina, as annexed : — 
Peocellaeia marina. 
Pr, dorso tectricibus alarum fuscis, vertice et cervice casrulescenti-cinereis, uropygio 
cserulescente, genis corporeque toto subtus albis. 
Frigate Petrel, Lath. Syn, VI., p. 410, 17. 
Habitat in Mari australi ; latitudine 37. — 8^ pollices longa. Pileus totus cum cervice ad 
dorsum usque cinereo-cserulescens : capitis latera et corpus totum a gula ad anum alba ; 
sub oculo utrinque striga cinerascens ; cauda emarginata ; pedes nigri, palmarum medio 
macula flavescente. Variat uropygio pallido. 
Bonaparte reverted to the idea that Latham’s bird was referable to Linne’s 
species, and was at first followed by Coues, but the latter author soon abandoned 
that idea. As the name has been commonly used by Australian ornithologists, 
I attach Linne’s description : — 
{Syst. Nat., Xllth ed., p. 212, 1766). 
Procellaria fregata. 
Procellaria nigra, subtus alba, pedibus nigris. 
Fregata marina apus subtus alba, superne nigra. ... ... Barr. Av. 73. 
Hirundo americana ... ... ... ... ... Rochef. it. B4, 134, 6, 135 
Habitat in Oceano Pelago. 
Avis paulo minor P. pelagica. 
The first reference is to Barrere, Ornithologioe Specimen Novum, 1745, who 
on p. 73 has the following : — 
Genus viii. Fregata. Fregate. 
Fregata est avis genus semifissipedis, rostro hamato, vulturino, sursum convexo, cujus 
valva superior, inferiori longior est. Fregatse species quas observavi hae sunt. 
Fregata marina, apus, subtus alba, superne nigra. Fregate. 
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