io6 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



great Pelicans, with their heavy flappings and 

 intervals of soaring, is impressive, as is the amaz- 

 ing headlong plunge into the sea after fish. Mirth- 

 provoking is the sequel sometimes witnessed. The 

 smaller Laughing Gull follows the great Pelican 

 and hovers above the spot where it plunges. The 

 Pelican soon emerges, holding the fish, which it 

 has seized, in its bill. The fish, perchance, must 

 be turned, and the mouthful of sea-water ejected. 

 While the Pelican is arranging matters, the Gull 

 alights on the great beak, leaning over to watch. 

 No sooner is the bill opened than the sly Gull 

 reaches in, seizes the fish, and flies away, we may 

 well imagine laughing. The solemn old Pelican 

 sits there blinking, too much astonished at first 

 to move. Finally the dread truth seems to dawn 

 on the dull mind. \\'ith a few disgusted flaps, 

 away it goes in pursuit of another fish. 



On some islands the Brown Pelican breeds 

 on the mangrove trees, constructing quite a bulky 

 nest of sticks. On others, which often are mere 

 low sand-bars, the nest is a mere hollow in the 

 sand, only slightly lined. Two or three large 

 coarse-shelled white eggs are laid. On the trees 

 they are comparatively safe, but on the ground 

 storms and floods often wash them away and 

 break up the nesting. The birds do not attempt 

 to rescue eggs, when these are drifted together 

 in windrows at high-water marks, but sit of? on 



the water and solemnly ponder. Usually, irt 

 time, they will lay again. 



Pelican Island, in Indian River, Fla., is the 

 best-known breeding colony, the first such to be 

 made a government reservation. Formerly there 

 were mangrove trees, but these have died off, 

 and the thousands of Pelicans nest on the ground. 

 Now and then a storm floods the island and de- 

 stroys all eggs and young. It is remarkable that 

 in this protected colony the birds each year have 

 nested earlier and earlier, until now laying is 

 begun in November, though on the west coast of 

 Florida the eggs are not laid until April and May. 



On June 21, 191 5, I visited a great colony of 

 ten or twelve thousand breeding on East Tim- 

 balier Island, on the west coast of Louisiana, 

 this also being a government reservation. Though 

 it was so late in the season, the Pelicans had 

 just laid their eggs; not one had yet hatched. 

 The nests were all on the sand of the low island. 

 Their lateness may have been due to robbery or 

 disaster elsewhere earlier in the season. At any 

 rate, it made them too late to mature the young 

 before a terrible tropical hurricane visited the 

 coast in August, and every one of the thousands 

 of young birds on the islands perished. 



Surely the birds have enough to contend with 

 without having man as an enemy ! 



Herbert K. Job. 



MAN-O'-WAR-BIRDS 



Order Stcganopodcs ; family Fregatidcc 



HE Man-o'-war-birds, or Frigate Birds, as they are often called, include two 

 species constituting the family Fregatidcc. The larger (Frcgala aqitila) occurs in 

 subtropical and tropical seas of both hemispheres, mainly north of the equator, 

 and visits more or less regularly the coasts of California, Texas, and Florida, 

 wandering northward occasionally as far as Nova Scotia. The other forms 

 appear in the central Pacific and Indian oceans, and further south. 



In general the Man-o'-war-birds' plumage is uniformly blackish in the adult 

 males, while the females have the upper parts blackish and the sides and lower 

 parts white. Other characteristic physical peculiarities are the unusually long 

 and stoutly hooked bill, the very short shank, the serrated claw of the middle 

 toe, the narrow web between the toes, and the pneumatic structure of the bones 

 of the skeleton, which makes the body lighter than that of any other bird in proportion to 

 the length of the wings, which are greatly elongated. The tail also is long and deeply forked 

 like that of the Barn Swallow. 



Their most curious physical feature, however, is the pouch or air sac of the male, which 

 lies along the throat and, when fully distended, extends forward as far as the end of the bill, 

 and downward so as to obscure the breast. When completely inflated (which is accom- 

 plished by means of tubes connected with the bronchi) it presents the appearance of a large, 

 scarlet balloon. Doubtless this is a sexual manifestation, and plays a part in the courtship 



