THE TROPIC BIRDS 2051 



regions of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, the plumage of the adult male 

 is brownish black, shot with metallic green and purple on the head, neck, back, 

 breast, and sides, and shaded with gray on the wings. The eye is brown, with the 

 surrounding bare space purplish blue; the beak is light blue at the base, white in 

 the middle, and dark-horn color at the tip; the throat sac orange red in the breed- 

 ing season, and the foot carmine red above and orange beneath. The females differ 

 by their duller tints and the presence of a larger or smaller pure white area on the 

 breast. The lesser frigate bird (F. minor} is confined to the Indian and Pacific 

 Oceans. 



The frigate bird, which has received the title of the Son-of-the-sun, is one of 

 the most swift and active of all pelagic birds, spending much of its time on the 

 wing, often far away from land, and subsisting largely on the fish which it compels 

 terns and other birds to disgorge. In regard to their predatory habits, Mr. H. O. 

 Forbes writes that in the Cocos Keeling islands hiding in the lee of the cocoanut 

 trees, the frigate birds would sally out on the successful fishers returning in the 

 evening, and perpetrate a vigorous assault on them until they disgorged for their 

 behoof at least a share of their supper, which they caught in mid air as it fell. The 

 swoop after the falling spoil was so elegant an evolution, that I always hoped that 

 the poor noddy would give up as heavy a morsel as possible, in order to necessitate 

 a correspondingly eager dive after it. Refractory gannets were often seized by the 

 tail by the frigate birds, and treated to a shake that rarely failed of successful 

 results. Fierce foes as they were in the air, on terra firma they roosted near each 

 other like the best of friends. On the island of Fernando de Noronha Moseley 

 describes the frigate birds as building their nests on the verge of an inaccessible 

 precipice; these being visible on looking down from the top, and each containing a 

 single egg. On the other hand, in the unmolested Raine island, these birds nest on 

 the ground. 



THE TROPIC BIRDS 

 Family PHAETHONTID^G 



The tropic birds, or "boatswains," as they are commonly called by sailors, are 

 represented by three species, and are somewhat inferior in size to the common Eng- 

 lish gull. In general appearance they are not unlike terns, from which they are, 

 however, distinguished at a glance by the greatly elongated middle pair of feathers 

 of the tail. In addition to this feature, they differ from the frigate birds in their 

 conical and pointed beak, near the base of which are situated the very large nos- 

 trils; by the longer and naked metatarsus, the completely webbed toes, and the 

 absence of a bare space round the eye, and of a throat sac. The best-known and 

 most widely-distributed species is the red-beaked tropic bird (Phaethon athereus), 

 ranging over the tropical regions of the three great oceans. In the adult the body 

 plumage is white, with a reddish tinge, and black shaft stripes to the feathers; the 

 outer webs of the primaries are white, the hinder secondaries mingled black and 



