PELICANID.E. 43 



disastrous effects of disuse are hereditary there is uo doubt. As examples, take the 

 reduced length of wing of the domestic as compared with the wild duck, or the inferior 

 hearing of the tame as compared with the wild rabbit ; and, strangest of all, the fact 

 mentioned by Mr. Herbert Spencer, who says that if a silkworm is placed on a mulberry 

 tree it commits the fatal mistake of eating the base of the leaf, thereby cutting through 

 the stem and precipitating itself, leaf and all, on to the ground, and, when there, is unable 

 to remount the tree. It would appear that the Frigate-bird is a mild example of this 

 theory, for certain it is that, though constituted to live on a fish diet, it has now no more 

 chance of catching fish in the ordinary bright still waters of the Tropics than would a 

 bungling fly-fisher on an English trout-stream in similar weather. That it has not the 

 powers necessary for a pirate is equally clear, for if even the small but sharp-billed Tern 

 determined to fight it would defeat the doughtiest Frigate-bird that ever existed. A 

 pirate's life is proverbially a hard one, but terribly so must it be when the pirate is 

 unfitted for the task. Summing up this well-known theory, Mr. Herbert Spencer says, 

 " The dwindling of a little-exercised part has, by inheritance, been more and more marked 

 in successive generations." We may therefore assume that the Frigate-bird will eventually 

 lose its natatory powers. But it is equally true that the effects of use are hereditary, so 

 when this bird has reached the former stage, it is to be hoped, for its own sake, that a 

 stoiiter bill and more efficient claws will make their appearance. 



The Frigate-bird would, then, appear to be in that dangerous transition stage that 

 before now has resulted in the extinction of the genus. This, however, seldom happens 

 unless accompanied by some sudden change in the surroundings. One of the latest 

 instances is the Dodo. Alisolutely without foes, it, from disuse, lost all powers of flight. 

 Suddenly its habitations were inundated by man, and, without any time given to establish 

 some other method of escaping, it was annihilated. 



I have seen it stated that the Frigate-bird is able to catch the flying-fish as they fly 

 from their numerous piscine pursuers. If this is a fact, there is still a grand legitimate 

 field open to them. On a cloudy, windy day, with the fish well on the feed. Frigate-birds 

 may often be seen fishing for themselves. In such weather, from on board ship, I once watched 

 three of the tribe very successful. Albicore and Bonita were rising freely at the flying- 

 fish scattered by the bows of the moving vessel. So, after much manual labour, I managed 

 to climb along the bowsprit to the outer side of the flying-jib stay. Armed with a patent 

 sea-fly of my own, I hooked an albicore of 36 lbs., that was carefully landed in a 

 potato-sack by a sailor posted below on the dolphin-striker. About to recommence 

 operations, I found myself joined by three gigantic Frigate-birds, looking so fierce and 



M 



