Page:Cassell's book of birds (IA cassellsbookofbi04breh).pdf/254

 unsuccessful it is compelled to resort to a system of plundering other sea-birds. The quiet and industrious tribes, the Gannets and Sea Swallows (Sterna hirundo, Linn.), are generally selected as objects of attack, and on returning to their haunts to feed their young brood, after having been out fishing all day, are stopped in mid-air by the marauding Frigate Bird, and compelled to deliver up some of their prey, which, being disgorged by them, is most dexterously caught by the plunderer before it reaches the water. A Frigate Bird has been observed to soar over the mast-head of a ship, and tear away the pieces of coloured cloth appended to the vane.

"About the middle of May," says Audubon, "a period which to me appeared very late for birds found in so warm a climate as the Florida Keys, the Frigate Pelicans assemble in flocks of from fifty to five hundred pairs or more. They are seen flying at a great height over the islands on which they have bred many previous seasons, courting for hours together, after which they return towards the mangroves, alight on them, and at once begin to repair the old nests or construct new ones. They pillage each other's nests of their materials, and make excursions for more to the nearest Keys. They break the dry twigs of a tree with ease, passing swiftly on wing and snapping them off by a single grasp of their powerful bill. It is indeed a beautiful sight to see them when thus occupied, especially when several are so engaged, passing and repassing with the swiftness of thought over the trees whose tops are blasted; their purpose appears accomplished as if by magic. It sometimes happens that this bird accidentally drops a stick while travelling towards its nest, when, if this should happen over the water, it plunges after it, and seizes it with its bill before it has reached the waves. The nests are usually placed on the south side of the Keys, and on such trees as hang over the water, some low, others high; several in a single tree, or only one, according to the size of the mangrove, but in some cases lining the whole island. They are composed of sticks crossing each other, to the height of about two inches, and are flattish, but not very large. When the birds are incubating, their long wings and tails are seen extending beyond the nest for more than a foot. The eggs are two or three—more frequently the latter—in number, measure two inches and seven-eighths in length, two in breadth, being thus of a rather elongated form, and have a thick smooth shell of a greenish white colour, frequently soiled with the filth of the nests. The young are covered with yellowish white down, and look at first as if they had no feet. They are fed by regurgitation, but grow tardily, and do not leave the nest until they are able to follow their parents on the wing."

"The Frigate Pelican," continues the same authority, "is possessed of a power of flight which I imagine superior perhaps to that of any other bird. However swiftly the Cayenne Tern, the smaller Gulls, or the Jager move on wing, it seems a matter of mere sport to it to overtake any of them. The Goshawk, the Peregrine, and the Gyr Falcon, which I conceive to be the swiftest of our Hawks, are obliged to pursue their victim, should it be a Green-winged Teal, or Passenger Pigeon, at times for half a mile at the highest pitch of their speed before they can secure it. The bird of which I speak comes from on high with the velocity of a meteor, and on nearing the object of its pursuit, which its keen eye has spied out while fishing at a distance, darts on either side to cut off all retreat, and with open bill forces it to drop or disgorge the fish which it has just caught. Upon one occasion I observed a Frigate Bird that had forced a Cayenne Tern, yet in sight, to drop a fish, which the broad-winged warrior had seized as it fell; this fish was rather large for the Tern, and might probably be about eight inches in length; the Frigate Bird mounted with it across his bill about a hundred yards, and then, tossing it up, caught it as it fell, but not in the proper manner; he therefore dropped it, but before it had fallen many yards caught it again. Still it was not in a good position, the weight of the head, it seemed, having prevented the bird from seizing it by that part. A second time the fish was thrown upward, and now at last was received in a convenient manner, that is, with its head downwards, and swallowed. These birds are gregarious, and utter a rough croaking cry."