ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



421 



ured witli a spread across the outstretched 

 arms of twenty feet. 



Largest among the seals, exceeding tlie 

 walrus in length and perhaps also in weight, 

 is the elephant seal of the Antarctic, speci- 

 mens of which have been taken over twenty 

 feet long. 



SEA BIRDS AS HOMING "PIGEONS." 



The past summer Frof. John B. Watson 

 made observations on the homing instincts of 

 gulls, terns and noddies during their nesting 

 periods. 



According to the report of Director A. G. 

 INIayer, of the marine laboratory at the Dry 

 Tortugas, Florida, where Prof. Watson stud- 

 ied the birds, "he demonstrated that if the 

 sooty terns and noddies were taken to Cape 

 Hatteras and liberated, they would return to 

 their nests on Bird Key, Tortugas, a distance 

 of 850 statute miles." 



In the course of a winter's voyage on the U. 

 S. S. "Albatross" in the South Seas, the writer 

 found among the natives of the Low Archi- 

 pelago many tame frigate-birds. The latter 

 were observed on horizontal perches near the 

 houses, and wei'e supposed to be merely the 

 pets of the children who fed them. 



They were entirely tame, having been 

 reared in captivity from the nest. As our 

 acquaintance with the people developed, we 

 disco\cred that the birds were used by them 

 after the manner of homing "pigeons" to 

 carry messages among the islands. 



The numerous islands of the Low Archi- 

 pelago extend for more than a thousand 

 miles in a northwest and southeast direction, 

 and it appears that the birds return promptly 

 when libeivated from quite distant islands. 

 They are distributed by being put aboard 

 small vessels trading among the islands. 

 The birds are liberated whenever there is news 

 to be carried, returning to their perches 

 sometimes in an hour or less, from islands 

 just below the horizon and out of sight of 

 the home base. Generally they are in no 

 great hurry. As the food of the frigate- 

 bird may be picked up almost anywhere at 

 sea, there is no means of ascertaining how 

 much time the bird loses in feeding or trying 

 to feed en route. It may also linger to en- 

 joy its liberty with other frig*te-birds. 



I did not observe tame frigate-birds else- 

 where in Polynesia, but Mr. Louis Becke, who 

 is familiar with most of the South Sea Islands, 

 says they were used as letter carriers on the 

 Samoan Islands when he was there in 1882, 

 carrying messages between islands sixty to 

 eighty miles apart. When he lived on Nano- 

 maga, one of these islands, he exchanged two 

 tame frigate-birds with a trader living on 

 Nuitao, sixty miles distant, for a tame pair 

 reared on that island. 



The four birds at liberty, frequently 

 passed from one island to the other on their 

 own account, all going together on visits to 

 each other's homes, where they were fed by 

 tiie natives on their old perches. ]Mr. Becke's 

 pair usually returned to him within twenty- 

 four to thirty-six hours. He tested the 

 speed of the "frigate" by sending one of his 

 birds by vessel to Nuitao where it was liber- 

 ated with a message at half-past four in the 

 afternoon. Before six o'clock of the same 

 day the bird was back on its own perch at 

 Nanomaga, accompanied by two of the 

 Nuitao birds, which not being at their perch 

 on that island when it was liberated, it had 

 evidently picked up en route. Sixty miles in 

 an hour and a half is probably easy enough 

 for the frigate-bird, as in Malayo-Polynesia 

 it is said to have frequently returned a dis- 

 tance of sixty miles in one hour. 



It becomes entirely tame and familiar when 

 raised from the nest, and if given liberty re- 

 turns regularly to its home-perch at night. 



The largest rookery of frigate-birds I 

 have seen, is at Tekokoto in the Low Archi- 

 pelago. 



Frigate-birds inhabit tropical and sub- 

 tropical seas. The spread of wing is phe- 

 nomenal for the size of the bird, being about 

 eight feet, giving a wing power perhaps un- 

 equalled; although Walt Whitman has some- 

 what exaggerated its power of flight in the 

 lines : 



"Thou who has slept all night upon the storm, 

 Waking renewed on thy prodigious pinions, 

 Thou born to match the storm (tliou art all 



wings ) . 

 At dusk thou look'st on Senegal, at morn 

 America." 



Judging from m}' South Sea experience, 

 the "frigate" goes to roost at night like 

 manv other sea fowls. 



