GRAY WINGS 



235 



Frigate 

 bird 



catchinq 

 flying ftsh. 



curious kind of fishing among the flying fishes. 

 He is the bird that follows the school and 

 pounces upon the flier when he leaves the water 

 to avoid the jaw of the albicore. The swoop 

 down of the bird and the dash upward, with- 

 out touching the water, is a wonderful sight. 

 The eagle and the hawk sometimes chase a wild 

 duck from the sky to the water's brim, return- 

 ing skyM'ard on a swift parabola; but it is no 

 such black thunder-bolt performance as the 

 frigate bird exhibits. 



All told the frigate bird has a bad reputa- 

 tion, though why he should be pilloried more 

 than the other sea birds one is at loss to say. 

 All birds are thieves, cut-throats, and murder- 

 ers. That is their way of getting a living. The 

 frigate bird is simply better endowed than the 

 others, and instead of doing the catching or 

 dragging do\vn, he prefers to rob the catcher. 

 Certainly he is admirably fitted for piracy. 

 And though he does no week-long flights upon 

 the water he is in make-up well fitted for the 

 open ocean. The large untiring wing, the 

 buoyant feathers, the spare body, the lonely dis- 

 position (for he is seldom seen in company, 

 though he has been tamed and used as a mes- 

 sage bearer between the islands in the Low 

 Archipelago) were given him that he might 



Frigate 

 bird's bad 

 reputation. 



ffis fitnets 

 for long 

 flight*. 



