380 SWIMMERS. 



appearance is generally hailed by mariners as an indication of 

 the approach of land. Yet numbers are not wanting around 

 the remotest and most sequestered islands in the midst of the 

 wide ocean. There they live in companies, associated with 

 Gulls, Tropic Birds, and their tyrannical persecutor, the Frigate, 

 who, appreciating their assistance as providers, dwells and rests 

 in the same retreats. 



Among the Frigates, some (probably the males after incuba- 

 tion) live in societies apart from the rest, dispersed to situations 

 most suitable for obtaining pillage. 



Boobies utter a loud cry, something in sound betwixt that 

 of the Raven and the Goose ; and this quailing is heard more 

 particularly when they are pursued by the Frigate, or when, 

 assembled together, they happen to be seized by any sudden 

 panic. As they can only begin the motion of their wings by 

 starting from some lofty station, they usually perch like Cormo- 

 rants, and in flying stretch out the neck and display the tail. 



According to Dampier, in the Isle of Aves these birds breed 

 on trees, though in other places they nestle on the ground, and 

 always associate in numbers in the same place. They lay one 

 or two eggs, and the young continue for a long time covered 

 for the most part with a verj- soft and white down. The flesh 

 is black and unsavory, yet sailors frequently make a meal of 

 it. In summer they are not uncommon on the coasts of the 

 Southern States. 



The Booby is chiefly restricted to the tropical or sub-tropical 

 seas, but an occasional example wanders as far north as off the 

 coast of Georgia. 



Note. — The Blue-faced Boobv {S7ila cyanops) and the Red- 

 footed BooBY {Sula piscator) occasionally straggle north to the 

 Florida waters ; and the Anhinga {Anhinga anJiinga'), also a trop- 

 ical bird, has been taken off North Carolina and on the Mississippi 

 River. 



