GREATER FRIGATE BIRD. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
Females. 
r Entirely dark below 
< Breast white 
[ With distinct white nuchal band 
f Breast white, abdomen dark 
[ Breast and abdomen white 
f Throat and fore-neck black 
\ Throat and fore-neck greyish-white 
( Back black-brown 
Back paler brown 
Back metallic 
F. aquila. 
2 
6 
F. andrewsi. 
F. magnificens. 
4 
F. minor ridgwayi. 
5 
F. minor aldabrensis. 
r Wing-band pale and broad F. minor nicolli. 
5 < Wing-band darker and narrower F. minor jmlmerstoni. 
[ Wing-band very dark F. minor minor. 
. f Bill larger, 95 mm F. arid arid. 
\ Bill smaller, 80 mm F. arid, iredalei. 
“ In addition to these I have examined a female with black throat and 
fore-neck and a huge bill from the Gambia, and a male from Cape Verd 
Islands, in the British Museum, the latter with black wings, but the back 
is steel black, not metallic green or purple. Further material wiU probably 
prove these to belong to a new subspecies of magnificens. 
“ There is also in the British Museum a ^ Frigate Bird from the Hume 
collection, which is labelled as coming from the Malay Peninsula. The 
specimen is indistinguishable from the Ascension Island males. It is either 
a stray bird blown out of its course or the label has been erroneously 
transferred. 
Mr. Mathews’ contention that Fregata minor ridgwayi breeds only on 
Culpepper and Wenman Islands, while magnificens occurs only on the other 
islands, is disproved by Beck’s photographs (California Academy), which 
show both species breeding on Hood Island.” 
This account is of interest for many reasons. Firstly, in view of my 
repeated assertions that a detailed account would appear in this place, it 
would have seemed reasonable that criticism should be withheld until after 
that was published. However, I have now the advantage of emphfi^sizing 
points I had not made much of, or vice versa, through Mr. Rothschild’s 
interpellation. Consequently I thank him, as now my own results and his 
controversial points are brought together, and comparison can more easily 
be made than had such to have been separately examined. 
With regard to the type locality of Gmelin’s P. minor, Mr. Rothschild 
claims that I have made a fundamental error. He does not state that he 
will enlarge upon his note given above, so that I conclude I have to deal 
only with what he has written. He states that “ in Edwards’ bird the 
throat and fore-neck are white, while in all the West Indian birds it is 
blackish. There is considerable internal evidence in the text, besides the 
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