268 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



' He is almost always a constant attendant upon our fisher- 

 men,' says Dr. Chamberlain,* ' when pursuing their vocation 



on the sand-banks in Kingston Har- 

 bour, or near the Palisados. Over 

 their heads it takes its aerial stand, 

 and watches their motions with a 

 patience and a perseverance the 

 most exemplary. It is upon these 

 occasions that the pelicans, the gulls, 

 and other sea-birds become its asso- 

 ciates and companions. These are 

 also found watching with equal eagerness and anxiety the issue 

 of the fishermen's progress, attracted to the spot by the sea of 

 living objects immediately beneath them. And then it is, 

 when these men are making their last haul, and the finny tribe 

 are fluttering and panting for life, that this voracious bird 

 exhibits his fierce propensities. His hungry companions have 

 scarcely secured their prey by the side of the fishermen's 

 canoes, when, with the lightning's dart, they are pounced upon 

 with such violence that, to escape his rapacious assaults they 

 readily, in turn, yield their hard-earned booty to this formidable 

 opponent. The lightness of its trunk, the short torso and vast 

 spread of wing, together with its long slender and forked tail, 

 all conspire to give it a superiority over its tribe, not only in 

 length and rapidity of flight, but also in the power of 

 maintaining itself, on outspread pinions, in the regions of its 

 aerial habitations amidst the clouds ; where, at times, so lofty 

 are its soarings, that its figure becomes almost invisible to the 

 spectator in this nether world.' 



The beautiful tropic birds, whose name implies the limit of 

 their abode — for they are seldom seen but a few degrees south 

 or north of either tropic — hover at such a distance from the 

 nearest land that it is still an enigma where they pass the 

 night — whether they sleep upon the waters, or whether their 

 extraordinary length of wing bears them to some isolated rock. 

 Nothing can be more graceful than their flight. They glide 

 along, most frequently without any motion of their outstretched 

 pinions, but at times this smooth progression is interrupted by 

 sudden jerks. When they see a ship, they never fail to sail 

 •^ound it, and the mariner bound to the equatorial regions hails 



* ' Jamaica Almanac,' 1843. 



