THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
p. 359. “ Tachypetes palmerstoni. The Frigate Pelican of the Pacific. 
“ Form — Generally similar to Tachypetes aquila, font rather smaller, and 
with the quills and feathers of the tail comparatively narrow. Wing in. 
Tail 15| in. Bill from gape to tip of upper mandible 4| in. 
“ Color. Adult male. Entire plumage black. . . . 
Female. With a bare space on the throat, but without the gular 
pouch. Breast white. Other parts of plumage as in the male. Slightly 
larger than the male (?) 
“ Young. Head and neck white, strongly tinged with fulvous, especially 
on the neck in front above the breast. Abdomen white: breast black. 
Entire upper plumage of the body, the wings and tail, black. Shoulder and 
some of the coverts of the wings paler and edged with ashy- white. 
“ This species, which we have no hesitation in concluding to be that 
indicated by Gmelin and Latham, as above cited, appears to be exclusively 
an inhabitant of the Pacific Ocean and its islands. In the collection of the 
Expedition there are numerous specimens according with each other exactly 
in their specific characters, and readily distinguishable from the well-known 
species of the Atlantic Coast.” 
These observations seem to have been ignored but never refuted. 
In the Ihis 1859, p. 152, G. C. Taylor, having visited an island in Fonseca 
Bay, Pacific Coast of Honduras, wrote : 
“ I observed that the Frigate birds were of three different plumages. As 
there were birds of all three sorts sitting together, and with their nests in the 
same bushes, I concluded that they were of one and the same species — ^males, 
females, and immature birds. Some have the head and neck white, the beak 
white, the feet and legs bluish- white, the belly white and'the wing-coverts 
greyish-brown. Others have the legs and feet black, and are black aU over, 
with a greenish metallic tinge on the back. These have a bright scarlet 
pouch, which they inflate to the size of an ostrich’s egg while on the wing. 
The boatmen informed me that these were the male birds. Others, probably 
immature birds, had the head black, the throat white, and the legs and feet 
pink. All had long, black, forked tails.” 
Hartert, dealing with birds he himself collected in the Caribbean Sea 
under the name Fregata aquila {Ibis 1893, p. 308), commented : 
“Schlegel {Mus. d. Pays-Bas), Oates (B. Brit. Burm.) and others are 
of opinion that the white-breasted specimens of this species are young birds, 
but Ridgway {B. N. Amer. and Man. N. Am. B.) has already well described 
the plumage of the adult female as well as that of the young, which has the 
whole head white. My male example agrees perfectly with specimens from 
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