GREATER FRIGATE BIRD. 
Many subspecies are easily determinable, so that it is necessary to fix the 
type locality of Gmelin’s species. No locality was given, and from examina- 
tion of the literature no clue can be gained. I therefore arbitrarily select 
Jamaica. 
Examination of many West Indian birds give the general measurements 
as follows : 
d ad. Culmen over 100 wing 620-647 tail 390-445 mm. 
$ ad. „ 114-120 „ 635-650 „ 433 
The downy young of this bird moults into a red head and neck, a black 
breast-band and white belly : the red head and black band vanish, leaving 
the head and all the under-parts white. The adult female has the head and 
throat black, upper-parts dark but indistinct rufous collar at the back of the 
neck ; breast white, belly black, brown bar on the wing. The adult male is 
all black, the dorsal breeding-plumes glossed with purple and green, the 
former colour predominating ; the wing-coverts are uniformly dark. In the 
males the bill is lead-coloured, the eyes brown, the feet black ; the females 
have dirty light blue biUs, brown eyes and bright red feet. 
The plumage-changes have been detailed already, and the abstract above 
is simply given as a guide to the species. 
The measurements given above are for the subspecies. 
Fregata minor minor (Gmelin). 
West Indian Seas. 
I would remark that probably more than one subspecies wiU be recognised 
later, when sufficient material is available to trace the annual sequences of 
plumage. 
I have already given details of the birds collected at South Trinidad and 
have noted the aberrant nature of the solitary black male available from 
that locality. I suggest it is a straggler, and note that there is a breeding 
colony of these birds at Fernando Noronha. With this exception the^ birds 
from South Trinidad show that a different subspecies breeds there. The 
bill of the females of the typical subspecies vary from 114-120, the wings 
going 635-650 mm. From the southern locality the females have biUs of 
128 mm. combined with a wing of 621-624. No specimens have a rusty collar 
at the back of the neck. 
I named this subspecies, in the Austral Av. Record, Vol. II., p. 118, 1914: 
Fregata minor nicolli 
South Trinidad Island ; 
South Atlantic Ocean. 
VOL. IV. 
265 
