IV FREGATIDAE 81 
sway gracefully from side to side in their endeavours to keep 
the intruder in view. Hardly a ripple follows the prolonged dive, 
while below the surface the wings are but slehtly used, the 
tail being often expanded, and the feet acting as powerful paddles. 
On reappearance a fish is generally to be seen grasped in the bill 
or transfixed by it, the peculiar mechanism of the vertebrae of 
the neck allowing the head to be darted forward at a moment’s 
notice for the capture;* subsequently the prey is jerked up into 
the air, cleverly caught and swallowed. The food, which seldom 
varies, 1s sometimes obtained by the bird standing with the body 
immersed to waylay the passing shoals; but if Gould is correct 
in adding frogs, newts, and aquatic insects to the diet, these must 
be procured very differently. The nest, generally situated over 
water, 1s a flat or concave fabric of sticks, lined as a rule with 
leaves, moss, or roots, and often used for several years in succession. 
High trees or bushes are indifferently chosen, and colonies are 
usually, but not invariably, formed, several pairs being accustomed 
to breed in proximity on the branches. The two to five eggs are 
greenish-blue with chalky incrustation, like those of Cormorants, 
though smaller and more delicate. The note is short and hoarse. 
Both sexes are said to incubate, and to regurgitate food for the 
young.” Jerdon says that the scapulars of the Indian Darter were 
royal badges among the Khasias. It is tamed by boatmen in Bengal. 
Fam. IV. Fregatidae—/regata aquila, the Frigate- or Man-of- 
War-Bird, the latter of which names is sometimes transferred to the 
Albatroses and smaller Skuas, is met with throughout the tropical 
regions, and has even strayed as far north as Nova Scotia. It is 
blackish-brown with green and purple reflexions; the bill is bluish, 
the feet are black, the orbits, lores, and pouch—inflated in flight— 
scarlet. The female is browner above and white below, with pinkish 
feetand no perceptible pouch; whilethe young resembleher, but shew 
some white on the head and neck. # minor, found from Madagascar 
to Papuasia and North Australia, but seldom beyond these limits, is 
smaller, with less purple gloss and a white mark on each flank. 
These birds are usually seen singly or in pairs, and are 
pre-eminently oceanic, seldom coming to land except near the 
breeding quarters, where they roost on the trees ; the normal flight 
1W. A. Forbes, P.Z.S. 1882, p. 210. 
2 These birds eject the lining of the gizzard in a most curious manner ; ef. A. D. 
Bartlett, P.Z.S. 1881, pp. 247, 248. 
Wom, 1x “ 
