OCEANIA WOOD 401 



much like the ancient belief that parrots should never be given 

 water to drink— an obsession that has caused so much misery in the 

 psittacine world — I determined to investigate it. And sooner than 

 1 expected the opportunity arrived, because shortly we had a tropi- 

 cal doAvnpour that thoroughly drenched the bird and her surround- 

 ings. It was good to watch the Fregata for the half hour the storm 

 lasted. She certainly enjoyed her bath, spreading wide her long, 

 pointed pinions to allow the cool douche to reach the hot skin of her 

 sides and underparts. Now and then she would flap her wings to 

 shake off superfluous water, but she did not retire to her box or make 

 any other effort to avoid a full bath. But the way in which that 

 bird drank rain water! For at least 10 minutes she did nothing 

 else — opening wide a capacious mouth to catch the drops that not 

 only fell directly into the orifice but that ran down the sides of the 

 mandibles. First she opened her beak, then pointed it aloft, as if 

 trying to drink in as much of the falling water as possible, and when 

 she had secured all her throat would hold made evident swallowing 

 movements. There could be no doubt that for this bird at least soft 

 water was a desirable beverage ; and I can readily believe that in the 

 upper air, where her folks spend most of their time, this perform- 

 ance may go on without the necessity of resting on the waves or of 

 roosting on dry land. I never saw the man-o'-war preen herself in 

 the sense that so many other birds are wont to do. I have an idea 

 that the very large birds do not, as a rule, indulge in that method of 

 feather cleansing. I have noticed the large birds of prey, herons 

 anhingas, etc., proceed, as our Fregata did, that is, shake their wings 

 and body and then sit in the sun and dry themselves after a torren- 

 tial shower bath or plunge. After this thorough wetting Fregata 

 seemed content to hold her wings semiextended, to flap them now 

 and then, and to shake herself, dog-like, every two or three minutes, 

 and then to let the warm sun do the rest. 



Every day I climbed to the bird's retreat invariably to find that she 

 appeared to have made herself entirely at home and was not at all 

 alarmed by the approach of strangers. The most hostile act she 

 was guilty of was to make a sort of grunting noise and open her 

 beak at the intruder. As she was taken from the nest (probably, 

 that is) and tamed by association with a native family, the chances 

 of becoming reconciled to captivity in a public zoo are good; yet 

 these birds make ver}^ poor cage birds, generally dying of home- 

 sickness, or the infections induced thereby, within a short time. 

 The feathered animal whose home is the illimitable blue sl^ soon 

 sickens even of the largest flight aviary and, though he may be 

 only a robber and live by piracy, yet he prefers death to loss of 

 • freedom. 



