IV 



FREGATIDAE 8 1 



sway gracefully from side to side in their endeavours to keep 

 the intruder in view. Hardly a ripple follows the prolonged dive, 

 while below the surface the wings are but slightly used, the 

 tail being often expanded, and the feet acting as powerful paddles. 

 On reappearance a fish is generally to be seen grasped in the bill 

 or transfixed by it, the peculiar mechanism of the vertebrae of 

 the neck allowing the head to be darted forward at a moment's 

 notice for the capture ; * subsequently the prey is jerked up into 

 the air, cleverly caught and swallowed. The food, which seldom 

 varies, is sometimes obtained by the bird standing with the body 

 immersed to waylay the passing shoals ; but if Gould is correct 

 in adding frogs, newts, and aquatic insects to the diet, these must 

 be procured very differently. The nest, generally situated over 

 water, is a flat or concave fabric of sticks, lined as a rule with 

 leaves, moss, or roots, and often used for several years in succession. 

 High trees or bushes are indifferently chosen, and colonies are 

 usually, but not invariably, formed, several pairs being accustomed 

 to breed in proximity on the branches. The two to five eggs are 

 greenish-blue with chalky incrustation, like those of Cormorants, 

 though smaller and more delicate. The note is short and hoarse. 

 Both sexes are said to incubate, and to regurgitate food for the 

 young. 2 Jerdon says that the scapulars of the Indian Darter were 

 royal badges among the Khasias. It is tamed by boatmen in Bengal. 



Fam. IV. Fregatidae. Fregata aquila, the Frigate- or Man-of- 

 War-Bird, the latter of which names is sometimes transferred to the 

 Albatroses and smaller Skuas, is met with throughout the tropical 

 regions, breeds in Laysan and has strayed to Nova Scotia. It is 

 blackish -brown with green and purple reflexions ; the bill is bluish, 

 the feet are black, the orbits, lores, and pouch inflated in flight 

 scarlet. The female is browner above and white below, with pinkish 

 feet and no perceptible pouch; while the young resemble her, but shew 

 some white on the head and neck. F. minor, found from Madagascar 

 to Papuasia and North Australia, but seldom beyond these limits, is 

 smaller, with less purple gloss and a white mark on each flank. 



These birds are usually seen singly or in pairs, and are 

 pre-eminently oceanic, seldom coming to land except near the 

 breeding quarters, where they roost on the trees ; the normal flight 



1 W. A. Forbes, P.Z.S. 1882, p. 210. 



" These birds eject the lining of the gizzard in a most curious manner ; cf. A. D. 

 Bartlett, P.Z.S. 1881, pp. 247, 248. 



VOL. IX G 



