Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/822

 786 F R I F R I of 27,085 inhabitants in 1876, and the province is divided into the three districts of Leeu warden, Heerenveen, and Sneek. Other towns of importance are Harlingen, a sea port with 11,043 inhabitants; Weststellingwerf, 13,969; Opsterland, 13,753; Schoterland, 12,893; Sneek, 9990 ; and Franeker, 6643. For history, &c., see FRISIANS. FRIGATE-BIRD, the name commonly given by our sailors, on account of the swiftness of its flight, its habit of cruising about near other species and of daringly pursuing them, to a large Sea-bird 1 the Fregata aquila of most ornithologists the Fregatte of French and the Rabihorcado of Spanish mariners. It was placed by Linnaeus in the genus Pelecanus, and until lately its assignment to the family Pelecanidce has hardly ever been doubted. Professor Mivart has, however, now declared (Trans. Zool. Soc., x. p. 364) that, as regards the postcranial part of its axial skele ton, he .cannot detect sufficiently good characters to unite it with that family in the group named by Professor &quot;Brandt Steganopodes. There seems to be no ground for disputing this decision so far as separating the genus Fregata from the Pelecanidce goes, but systematists will probably pause before they proceed to abolish the Steganopodes, and the result will most likely be that the Frigate-Birds will be con sidered to form a distinct family (Fregatidce) in that group. In one very remarkable way the osteology of Fregata differs from that of all other birds known. The furcula coalesces firmly at its syinphysis with the carina of the sternum, and also with the coracoids at the upper extremity of each of its rami, the anterior end of each coracoid coalescing also with the proximal end of the scapula. Thus the only articula tions in the whole sternal apparatus are where the coracoids meet the sternum, and the consequence is a bony framework which would be perfectly rigid did not the flexibility of the rami of the furcula permit a limited amount of motion. That this mechanism is closely related to the faculty which the bird possesses of soaring for a considerable time in the air with scarcely a perceptible movement of the wings can hardly be doubted, but the particular way in which it works has yet to be explained. Two species of Fregata are considered to exist, though they differ in little but size and geographical distribution. The larger, F. aquila, has a wide range all round the world within the tropics, and at times passes their limits. The smaller, F. minor, appears to be confined to the eastern seas, from Madagascar to the Moluccas, and south ward to Australia, being particularly abundant in Torres Strait, the other species, however, being found there as well. Having a spread of wing equal to a Swan s and a comparatively small body, the buoyancy of these birds is very great. It is a beautiful sight to watch one or more of them floating overhead against the deep blue sky, the long forked tail alternately opening and shutting like a pair of scissors, and the head, which is of course kept to windward, inclined from side to side, while the wings are to all appearance fixedly extended, though the breeze may be constantly varying in strength and direction. Equally fine is the contrast afforded by these birds when engaged in fishing, or, as seems more often to happen, in robbing other birds, especially Boobies, as they are fishing. Then the speed of their flight is indeed seen to advantage, as well as the marvellous suddenness with which they can change their rapid course as their victim tries to escape from their attack. Before gales Frigate-Birds are said often to fly low, and their appearance near or over land, except at their breeding-time, is supposed to portend a hurricane. 2 Gene- 1 &quot; Man-of-war- Bird&quot; is also sometimes applied to it, and is perhaps the older name ; but it ia less distinctive, some of the larger Albatrosses being so called, and, in books at least, has generally passed out of use. Hence another of the names&quot; Hurricane-Bird&quot; by which this species is occasionally known. rally seen singly or in pairs,&quot;except when the prospect of prey induces them to congregate, they breed in large com panies, and Mr Salvin has graphically described (Ibis, 1864, p. 375) one of their settlements off the coast of British Honduras, which he visited in May 1862. Here they chose the highest mangrove-trees 3 on which to build their frail nests, and seemed to prefer the leeward side. Tho single egg laid in each nest has a white and chalky shell very like that of a Cormorant s. The nestlings are clothed iu pure white down, and so thickly as to resemble puff-balls. When fledged, the beak, head, neck, and belly are white, the legs and feet bluish-white, but the body is dark above. The adult females retain the white beneath, but the adult males lose it, and in both sexes at maturity the upper plum age is of a very dark chocolate brown, nearly black, with a bright metallic gloss, while the feet iu the females are pink, and black in the males the last also acquiring a bright scarlet pouch, capable of inflation, and being percep tible when on the wing. The habits of F. minor seem wholly to resemble those of F. aquila. According to Bechstein, an example of this last species was obtained at the mouth of the Weser in January 1792, and it has hence been included by some ornithologists among European birds ! (A. N.) FRISCHLIN, NIOODEMUS (1547-1590), scholar and poet, was born on the 22d of September 1547, at Balingen, Wiirtemberg, where his father was parish minister. He was educated at Tubingen, and in 1568 was promoted to the chair of poetry and history. In 1575 for his comedy of Rebecca, which he read at Ratisbon before the emperor Maxmilian II., he was rewarded with the laureateship and with the honour of knighthood. Some time after wards he was made a comes palatinus. In 1582 his un guarded language and his reckless life had made it necessary that he should leave Tubingen ; he accordingly accepted a quiet mastership at Laibach in Carniola, which he held fur about two years. Shortly after his return to the university in 1584, he was threatened with a criminal prosecution on a charge of immoral conduct, to which, it was alleged, he had exposed himself some years previously, and the threat led to his withdrawal to Frankfort in 1587. Of the remaining four years of his life little is recorded. For eighteen months he taught in the Brunswick Gymnasium, and he appears also to have resided occasionally at Strasburg, Marburg, and Mainz. From the last-named city he wrote certain libellous letters, which led to his being arrested in March 1590 at the instance of the authorities of Wiirtemberg. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Hohenuracb, near Reutlingen, where, on the night of the 29th of November 1590, he was killed by a fall in attempting to let himself down from the window of his cell. His prolific and versatile genius pro duced a great variety of works, which entitle him to some rank both among poets and among scholars. In his Latin verse he has often successfully imitated the classical models ; his comedies are not without freshness and vivacity ; and some of his versions and commentaries, particularly those on the Georgics and Biicolics of Virgil, though now well-nigh forgotten, were important contributions to the scholarship of his time. No collected edition of his works has ever been published, to enumerate them exhaustively would be almost impossible. Among those most widely known may be mentioned the Hebrcsis, a Latin epic based on the Scripture history of the Jews; the Elegiaca, in twenty-two books; the Opera Scenica, consisting of six comedies and two tragedies ; the Grammatica Latino, ; the versions _ of Callimachus and Aristophanes; and the commentaries on Persius and Virgil. See the monograph of Strauss (Lcben und Schrifttn des Dichters und Philologen Frischlin, 1855). 3 Capt. Taylor, however, found their nests as well on low bushes of the same tree in the Bay of Fonseca (Ibis, 1859, pp. 150-152).