102 Catalogue of Birds. 



27. Tachypetes aquilus (Linn.). 



" ' Frigate Bird.' This species is almost our constant com- 

 panion, from two to twelve or more pair being generally 

 present. They breed in June and July. The nest is made out 

 of twigs, and is about one foot in diameter and four or five 

 inches high. But one egg is laid, sometimes short and oval and 

 sometimes long and elliptical. These nests are never made in 

 crevices, but on the top of the cliff at the extremity of the Key, 

 overhanging the sea. I have never seen them quarrel, but, on 

 the contrary, they appear to be very social ; and when several 

 pairs nest together the nests almost touch each other, the males 

 standing and sitting around them in a close group. The females 

 on their nests always sit facing to windward, as indeed do all 

 other sea birds when their nests are exposed to the wind. 



" They are often very tame. I have frequently approached a 

 group like that just mentioned (the females on their nests sur- 

 rounded by the males), slowly and steadily. The males would 

 first fly away when I came within twenty feet of them, but the 

 females would remain looking around for the cause of alarm, in 

 a bewildered manner, as if shortsighted ; and I have sometimes 

 approached thus within five or six feet of them (near enough to 

 effect their capture) before they would rise into flight in the 

 heavy, unwieldy manner peculiar to them. Sometimes, in a 

 calm, I have seen a large flock alight on the brink of one of our 

 quarries on an extremity of the Key, and there sit looking down 

 unconcernedly on the laborers only ten or fifteen feet below 

 them. The male collects the twigs for building the nest, and 

 for that purpose hovers over some locality where the dead herb- 

 age abounds, and after a few circles makes a sudden swoop 

 downwards, and jerks up his prize, unless it is too firmly rooted." 



28. Phaeton aethereus, Linn. 



" ' Tropic bird.' During my residence here this species has 

 visited the Key regularly, but in small numbers. In 1862 four 

 arrived March 18th; on the 23d these were caught in a hole in 

 the cliff facing the sea on the windward side. One egg was 



