42 OCEAN BIRDS. 



fortunate enough to succeed. Our chief officer had a pointer as shipmate, and coming on 

 deck one night I found the dog rigidly pointing at something apparently high aloft; hut 

 as this same attitude was daily taken up for a fly, a pig, or even a swinging block, it by 

 no means followed that anything out of the common was about. On this occasion the 

 object of its attentions was a Frigate-bird, poised on a level with the main truck, and 

 looking for all the world like some huge vampire-bat hovering over the sleeping crew. 

 An easy shot, but dangerous for the ship's braces. Luckily the wire cartridge went like 

 a bullet, and the bird with a broken wing cannoned against the mizen top-gallant sail 

 and fell on the main deck. It turned out to be a mature female, with the reddish-brown 

 throat, white breast, and light brown-speckled edging along the upper wing-coverts pecuHar 

 to the sex. From tip to tip of wing it measured six feet one inch. Dr. Bennet says he 

 has frequently seen a Frigate-bird sweep down on a vane at the mast-head and carry it 

 off; so possibly this bird was meditating some such outrage on the ship's property. 



With their small and partially webbed feet they are, as may be supposed, but poor 

 swimmers, and, as their principal food is fish, they subsist to a great extent by plundering 

 birds more skilful than themselves in the art of fishing. The principal victim to this 

 aggressive policy is the Gannet, whose dexterously-earned day's sport I have frequently 

 seen appropriated by this handsome buccaneer. Ever on the look-out, wheeling and 

 circling high aloft, the Frigate-bird no sooner beholds the successful headlong dive of 

 the Gannet than he swoops down in hot pursuit to gain possession of the prize. Generally 

 the fish is meekly dropped, and being caught in mid-air by the pirate is carried triumphantly 

 away ; but sometimes the Gannet resists, and in such cases always comes off victorious. 

 For though, with its unrivalled flying powers, the Frigate-bird is a masterpiece in the 

 air, the long delicately curved beak and the flimsy claws are of no real use in actual 

 warfare. But bounce and swagger, coupled with a somewhat formidable appearance, in 

 this case as in many another, create a great impression, and birds that could easily hold 

 their own often submit to be robbed rather than fight. Davenport Adams mentions a case 

 where a Frigate-bird was pursuing a small Tern to take possession of his day's fishing, 

 when a larger bird of a different species interfered and drove away the pirate, and then 

 flew away on its own affairs, as if conscious of having performed a good deed. Thus it 

 would seem that the bird-world resent this unnatural behaviour of the Frigate-bird. 



Buffon and many old authors depict the Frigate-bird with fully-webbed feet, so 

 perhaps originally it was furnished to fish for its own livelihood; but like the Blind Crabs 

 dwelling in the Caves of Kentucky, that have lost their eyes by disuse, so this bird may 

 now, from the same reason, have lost the means of gaining an honest living. That the 



