Notes on Jungle and Other Wild Life. 87 



was a lovely satiny white. After he had been duly admired and 

 allowed lo rest awhile, he returned to his favourite task of 

 attending' the horses of the siui-(lod. 



In the harbour at Grenada we saw, quite close at hand, 

 numerous Frigate or Man-of-\Var birds (Fregata aqitila). 

 Farther north we had observed individuals flying high in the 

 air, but at St. (George's there w^as ample opportunity to study 

 these magnificent birds at close range, for they often flew quite 

 close to our steamer. The Frigate Bird is found near the 

 equator all over the globe, and both sexes have the same colour- 

 ation above — a chocolate brown with a metallic sheen that 

 appears shiny black to the distant observer. The female has 

 w'hite beneath, and her outstretched legs are plainly pink, while 

 her mate's are black. The body is relatively small, w^hile the 

 wings, as large and widespread as a swan's, give the bird great 

 buoyancy. I do not know why, but these birds — especially the 

 apparently coal-black male — remind me of a figure of Satan, a 

 detail of an engraving by Gustave Dore that, in my boyhood, 

 hung (a cheerful adornment) in my bedroom. This fearsome 

 object was placed there by my much-tried Calvanist nurse — 

 whose patient soul now rests with the Elect, I trust. She 

 expressed the justifiable opinion that " boys like you " require 

 for their eternal welfare not only physical but mental influences 

 to keep tliem in the straight and narrow. Hence, the warning- 

 portrait. It is one of the regrets of my career that Nurse'h' 

 faithful works should have proved so disappointing and that 

 in time, I came to look upon the Mephistopheles on the wah 

 as a kind of guardian angel. Be that as it may, the moment I 

 raw the great glistening, double-triangle pinions of the Frigate 

 Bird I instantly visualized my old friend the Devil! And yet, 

 as Newton says, 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, kept to w-indward, inclined from side to 

 side. The wings seem to be fixed in one position in all directions 

 ot the wind. 



The Man-of-War Bird exhibits some wonderful diving 

 and hunting stunts when, from on high, he fishes in the sea 

 beneath liini or chases other birds to rob them of their prey. 



