THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
In the British Museum, two birds from Aldabra give: 
^ ad. Culmen 106 wing 600 tail 400 middle toe 50 mm. 
? ad. „ 118 „ 605 „ 400 „ 57 
I have a black male from Aldabra, the type of (ildcihTCTisis measuring ; 
<? ad. Culmen 104, wing 600, tail 400, middle toe 50 mm. 
These birds may be all associated, for the present, together as constituting 
a recognisable subspecies, the details of measurement agreeing fairly well. 
A summary of the figures would read : 
^ ad. Culmen 96-120 ? wing 585-605 ? tail 390-420 middle toe 48-54 mm. 
9 „ 116-120 „ 613-621 „ 400-430 „ 50-57 
These show that the small Christmas Island bird cannot be associated 
with these, so that it must also be recognised as a different subspecies. 
This leaves only the Atlantic Ocean birds to be dealt with. I have 
shown that the Ascension Island bird is a distinct species. 
There is quite a long series from South Trinidad Island in the British 
Museum, but only one black bird is included. This is, moreover, the smallest 
of the lot measuring: 
Culmen 98, wing 550, tail 400, middle toe 47 mm. 
The remainder are immature or females, the most adult of which measure: 
9 ad. Cuhnen 
128 
wing 600 -f- 
tail 
400 -h 
middle toe 
54 m 
9 ad. 
128 
>> 
624 
99 
447 
99 
56 
9 ad. 
y? 
121 
621 
99 
415-f 
99 
52 
(J imm. 
99 
113 
>> 
604 
99 
368 -b 
99 
47 + 
^ imm. 
99 
118 
>> 
584 
99 
400 -f 
99 
55 
9 imm. 
99 
120 
619 
99 
+ 
99 
52 
What the solitary black male means I cannot say ; it would seem to be 
a straggler from some other breeding locality as its measurements disagree 
so much. 
Omitting it for the present we get: 
9 ad. Culmen 121-128 wing 621-624 tail 415-417 middle toe 52-56 mm. 
Im. 3 „ 113-118 „ 584-604 „ ? 368-400 „ 47-55 
No series appears to be available from any given locality in the West 
Indies or the Caribbean Sea. 
The measurements of the birds in the Rothschild Collection, however, give 
figures disagreeing with those produced above from South Trinidad, but it is 
almost certain that a large series would show many subspecies to be 
represented in the Northern area ; at the present time I lump all these 
together and call them typical Fregata minor. 
262 
