428 ANSERES. — PELECANID^. 



opponent. The lightness of its trunk, the short tarsi, 

 and vast spread of wing, together with its long, 

 slender, and forked tail, all conspire to give him a 

 superiority over his tribe, not only in length and 

 rapidity of flight, but also in the power of maintain- 

 ing itself on outspread pinions in the regions of 

 his aerial habitation amidst the clouds; where, at 

 times, so lofty are its soarings, its figure becomes 

 almost invisible to the spectator in this nether 

 world." (Jamaica Aim. 1843, p. 87.) 



I know nothing positive of the nidification of the 

 Frigate. On the face of Pedro Blufi", about four 

 feet from the surface of the sea, which, however, 

 in stormy weather dashes furiously into it, there is 

 a hole into which a man may crawl, but which, 

 within, widens into a spacious cavern. A person 

 who had visited this place, told me that on its floor 

 lie the skulls and bones of men, mouldering in damp 

 and decay ; the relics, probably of some of the unfor- 

 tunate Indians, who preferred death by famine to the 

 tortures and cruelties of the Spaniards. To this 

 cave, he afiirmed, the Frigates and Pelicans resort 

 to lay their eggs ; depositing them on the projecting 

 ledges and shelves of the soft and marly rock. On 

 my way up to Kingston from Bluefields in June, 

 lying windbound under the Pedro, I induced a white 

 man residing there to accompany me to the face 

 of the Bluff", where he said the Pelicans and Frigates 

 roosted, and where the former built and laid. After 

 walking about a mile in the most burning heat, 

 through cacti, aloes, and spinous bushes, a most 

 peculiar vegetation, and over the sharp needle-like 



