CHRISTMAS FRIGATEBIRD Fregata andrewsi CR

Fregata andrewsi Mathews, 1914

MZUT AV6097; mount; unsexed juvenile; Christmas Island, 24 April 1866; collected during the Magenta voyage .

Remarks.—On 24 April 1866, the Italian warship Magenta was at 10°44’S, 104°28’E, some c.35–40 nautical miles from Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean (Giglioli 1870, 1876). Giglioli originally identified the specimen as a juvenile Ascension Frigatebird F. aquila (Linnaeus, 1758) but it was re-identified as F. andrewsi, probably by Salvadori, after the species was described by Mathews (1914). Photographs and measurements of the bill and wing confirm the re-identification (I. A. W. McAllan pers. comm.).