374 SWIMMERS. 



leagues from the land, sustaining these vast flights with the 

 .greatest apparent ease, sometimes soaring so high as to be 

 scarcely visible, at others approaching the surface of the sea, 

 where, hovering at some distance, it at length espies a fish, 

 and darts upon it with the utmost rapidity, and generally with 

 success, flying upwards again as quickly as it descended. In 

 the same manner it also attacks the Boobies and other marine 

 birds, which it obliges to relinquish their prey. 



I'hese birds breed abundantly in the Bahamas, and are said 

 to make their nests on trees, if near ; at other times they lay 

 on the rocks. The eggs, one or two, are of a flesh color, 

 marked with crimson spots. The young birds, covered with 

 a grayish- white down, are assiduously attended by the parents, 

 who are then tame and easily approached. When alarmed, 

 like Gulls, they as readily cast up the contents of their pouch 

 as those birds do of the stomach. 



The Frigate Bird occurs regularly off the coast of Florida, and 

 examples have been seen as far north as Nova Scotia ; but out- 

 side of the tropics it must be considered an accidental straggler. 



