GREATER FRIGATE BIRD. 
breeding adults measure — culmen 111-117 mm., wing 595-597, tail 395, middle 
toe 52. A young female in moult has the tail 420 mm. in length. The 
females have not the throat fully black, but the feathers have ashy tips. 
When these figures are compared with those given by Galapagos birds 
they are seen to differ appreciably. 
To tabulate the figures: 
Culpepper Island — 
Culmen. 
Wing. 
Tail. 
Middle toe. 
Galapagos 
89-93 
550-580 
370-400 
48-50 mm. 
Tower Island, etc. — 
Galapagos 
106-113 
646-660 
470-510 
51-53 
Laysan 
102-110 
584-595 
375-395 
50-52 
Inasmuch as the Laysan birds have large bills almost agreeing with the 
large Galapagos birds, while their wing length approximates more closely 
with those of the small Galapagos birds and differ in details of coloration 
from both, they must be regarded as a distinct subspecies. 
Gmelin’s Pelecanus palmerstoni was described from Palmerston Island, 
Pacific Ocean, and it is remarkable that probably since Cook’s time no further 
specimens have been collected at that locality. Consequently no series are 
available, but that a form of minor does occur in that neighbourhood is 
certain. The race which would bear the name cannot be defined, as only two 
immature unsexed birds are available. These give the following measure- 
ments : cuhnen 109-111 mm., wing 580-590, tail 345, middle toe 48-55. 
These figures approximate somewhat to those of the preceding, but in 
view of the facts produced by the study of the Laysan and Galapagos series 
it is impossible to associate either with the name palmerstoni, and this must 
be used for an indeterminate (at present) subspecies. Montrouzier’s Tachypetes 
chamheyroni would be cited as a doubtful synonym, as no series either from 
Huon or Surprise Island are available, and we cannot guess as to the nature 
of the form inhabiting those islands. 
However, Fregata aquila palmerstoni cannot be used for the Australian 
bird, as I have shown first that aquila must be discarded as the species name, 
and I now dismiss palmerstoni as the subspecies name. 
Apparently the large form of Fregata is a rare straggler in Australian 
waters and I have seen no specimens absolutely procured in Australia. 
Gould states he commonly received them from Torres Straits, but no mature 
specimens are in the British Museum from his Collection. The one enumerated 
in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum as from Raine Island, 
North-east Australia, has no original label on, and the locality appears to 
have been added probably because the little birds came from that locality. 
259 
