306 



INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



bird (Fig. 244), which abounds both in the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans. The extent of wing is, probably, nine or ten 

 feet, though twelve, and even fourteen feet have been stated. 

 With these ample pinions it fearlessly wings its way over the 



'"'//.'////* 



Fig. 244. FRIGATE-BIRD. 



ocean, and is frequently found leading a life of ceaseless rapine 

 at a distance of more than a thousand miles from the nearest 

 shore. Its support is derived exclusively from the sea. yet it 

 is never known to rest upon its surface. " Supported in its 

 unlimited flights by the strength and expansion of its wings, 

 and aided by the singular mechanism of its tail, and the 

 buoyant nature of the inflated sac which distends its throat, 

 it seems to be an inhabitant of the air rather than of the 

 land, where it resorts alone for the duties of its nest, or of the 

 water, over which it only hovers for its prey."* 



When navigators give us detailed accounts of the habits of 

 a bird which even the naturalist describes as an inhabitant of 

 the air rather than of the land or of the water, it is not sur- 

 prising that the idea w^as at one time current, that in the 

 sunny islands of the East there were birds whose lives were 

 passed upon the wing, and to whom, as they never perched, 

 feet would have been unnecessary appendages. We allude, of 

 course, to the Birds of Paradise, more fully noticed hereafter. 



The elaborate provision made for the buoyancy of birds is 

 so remarkable a characteristic of their structure, that we shall 

 * Vigors in Linn. Trans, vol. xvi. p. 419. 



