290 



INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



bird (Fig. 241), which abounds both in the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans. The extent of wing is, probably nine or ten 

 feet, though twelve, and even fourteen feat have been stated. 

 Witli these ample pinions it fearlcsslv wings its way over tlie 





Fig. 244.— Frigate-Bibd. 



ocean, and is frequently found leading a life of ceaseless rapine 

 at a distance of more than a thousand miles from the nearest 

 shore. Its support is derived exclusively from the sea, yet it 

 is never known to rest upon its surface. " Supported in its 

 unlimited flights by the strength and expansion of its wings, 

 and aided bv the sinsrular mechanism of its tail, and the 

 buoyant nature of the inflated sac which distends its throat, it 

 seems to be an inhabitant of the air rather than of the land, 

 where it resorts alone for the duties of its nest, or of the water, 

 over which it only hovers for its prey."* 



When navis^ators s^ive us detailed accounts of the habits of a 

 bird which even the naturaUst describes as an inhabitant of the 

 air rather than of the land or of the Avater, it is not surprising 

 that the idea was at one time current, that in the sunny islands 

 of the East there were birds whose lives were passed upon the 

 wing, and to whom, as they never perched, feet would have 

 been unnecessary appendages. We allude, of course, to the 

 Birds of Paradise, more Ivdly noticed hereafter. 



* Vigors in Liim. Trans., vol. xiv. p. 419. 



