Remarks.—The Palaus mark the northernmost point of range of the Little Pied Cormorant. It does not occur in the Philippines and must have reached Palau from the New Guinea region. It is unknown at Yap and other "high" islands in the Carolines. A sight record of this species at Pagan in the northern Marianas, made by Orii and reported in the Hand-list of Japanese Birds (Hachisuka et al., 1942:207), may be questioned. Amadon (1942:1) has studied the races of this species and points out that there is little geographic variation in the species; it is divisible into three subspecies. One of these is confined to New Zealand. Another occurs only on Rennell Island, Solomons. The six specimens taken by the NAMRU2 party at Peleliu included only two adults, whose measurements are within the range of those studied by Amadon.
The NAMRU2 party found the birds numerously in the southern Palaus in 1945. Birds were concentrated in the areas of mangrove swamp and on the tidal flats. In August and September, they were observed frequently in groups of 10 to 15, either sitting on the ground or perched on low mangroves or dead snags sunning themselves. Coultas (field notes) received reports that they nested at a freshwater lake on the "main island" (Babelthuap?)
Ripley (1948) reports the occurrence of "about a dozen anhingas (presumably Anhinga melanogaster)" at Babelthuap on 12 November 1946.
Fregata minor minor (Gmelin)
Pacific Man-o'-War
Pelecanus minor Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 572. (No type locality = Christmas Island, Indian Ocean.)
Pelecanus aquila? Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. "Uranie," Zool., 1824, p. 154 (Carolines).
Pelecanus aquilus? Lesson, Man. d'Ornith., 2, 1828, p. 354 (Carolines).
Atagen aquilus Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 61 (Ladrone or Marian Islands).
Tachypetes aquila Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 577 (Ruk); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 11 (Ruk); Prowazek, Die deutschen Marianen, 1913, p. 100 (Marianen).