59o
10.
+■ LESSER FRI-
GATE P.
D e s c r ip t ion,
P E L I C A N.
tropics, yet are lefs frequent in fome places than others. Were
feen by Cook in 30I deg. In the old. route of navigators mentioned
frequently, as being met with at Afcenfion IJland, Ceylon,
Eaft Indies, and China *. Dampier faw them in greated plenty
in the IJland of Aves in the Weft Indies. Our later navigators talk
of them as frequenting various places of the South Sea, about the
Marquejas, Eafter IJles, and New Caledonia f , alfo at Otaheite,
though at this laft place not in fuch plenty as in many others.
Are faid to make the neft on trees, if any within a proper
diftance, otherwife on the rocks J. Lay one or two eggs, of a
flefh-colour, marked with crimfon fpots. The young birds are
covered with greyiih white down : legs of the fame colour : and
the bill white.
La petite Fregate, Brif. Orn. vi. p. 509. Oif. viii. pi. 30,
Man of War Bird, Ed<w. pi. 309.
^TTIIS is lefs than the laft, and meafures only two feet nine
inches in length : extent from wing to wing five feet and a
half. The bill five inches long, and red ; the bafe of it, and bare
fpace round the eye, of the fame colour j the noftrils are fuffi-
ciently apparent, and appear near the bafe; fhape of the bill as in
the larger one: the head, hind part of the neck, and upper parts of
the body and wings, are ferruginous brown : the throat, fore part
* Thought by OJbeck to be one of the forts of birds ufed in fiihing by the
Chinefe»
+ Forft. Voy. i. p. 588.— //. ii. p. 433.
t Dumpier.—Known to build in quantities on a fmall ifland contiguous to
Guadaloupe.'—Hift. des Oif. note (f)+
3 of
P E L I C A N . 59*
of the neck, and bread:, white : tail greatly forked, as in the other:
legs of a dirty yellow.
In my colle&ion is a bird very limilar to this, if not the fame:
general colour of the plumage a full black : bread: and belly mottled
with afh-colour: the inner ridge of the wing the fame : the
bill has the long furrow, as is feen in the greater one j but the noftrils
are diffidently apparent, being about half an inch in length,
rather broader at that part which is. near the bafe. This has a
large red pouch at the chin and throat, as in the former fpecies.
It is mod likely that mine is the male bird, as others, fufpefted to
be of the oppofite fex, have little or no traces of the jugular
pouch *. Some have fuppofed that the’ greater and lefier Frigates
are the fame bird, in different periods of age.
C IZ E o f a large Duck : length near three feet. Bill five inches wh'It e -
long j colour dufky, except at the tip, where it is very p ale, HEADED FR. P.
nearly white; both mandibles are hooked : the fides of the head
covered with feathers: the head, and fore part of the neck, are
white, finifhing in a point on the lad:: the bread: and belly are
alfo white : except thefe, the reft of the plumage is brown : the
tail forked : legs reddidi brown.
This is in the Hunterian Mufeum. In the fame collection I ob-
ferve one very like it, with the head and half the neck all round
white, palling on the fore part down the bread, and ending between
the legs : fides of the body, and the vent, brown j which, as
• This fuppofition Teems juftified from apair in the Hunterian Mufeum, in both
of which the plumage is wholly black; the one has a large pouch, the other defti-
tute of it.
in
Description«
♦