20 THE WONDER OF LIFE 



and indirectly between members of the same species is 

 vividly pictured in an account which Mr. Dean C. Worcester 

 gives of a recent visit to Cavilli Island, one of the Philip- 

 pines. The actors were the red-legged boobies (Sula 

 piscator), related to the British gannet, and the frigate- 

 birds (Fregata aquila). 



' Just before dusk, as we were leaving for the steamer, 

 we witnessed an extraordinary scene. Large numbers of 

 red-legged boobies which had apparently been fishing all 

 day, began to return, bringing fish to their nesting mates 

 and to their young. The frigate-birds promptly formed a 

 skirmishing line, and, singly or in pairs, attacked all comers, 

 compelling them to give up their fish. Some of the boobies, 

 possibly sophisticated individuals which had learned wis- 

 dom by experience, actually handed their fish over to the 

 frigate-birds and so escaped without much drubbing, but 

 less experienced or more obstinate individuals, which at 

 first refused to disgorge, were vigorously punished until 

 they changed their minds and threw up their fish which 

 were most adroitly caught in the air by their piratical 

 enemies. In one instance, two frigate-birds set upon a 

 booby, one of them attacking him from above, and the other 

 flying below to catch the fish which he dropped, and getting 

 five out of seven. Soon the incoming boobies began to 

 arrive in flocks, and the frigate birds were not able to set 

 upon them all, so that many individuals got through to 

 the island. Once among the trees they were left in peace.' 



Captain A. R. S. Anderson has given us a dramatic picture 

 of an extraordinarily keen, though somewhat one-sided, 

 struggle between birds and bats. The scene is in the Far East 

 by the banks of the river Salween, where lime-stone rocks 

 rise for some 250 feet, and are bored by caves and orna- 

 mented by Buddhistic sculpture. The human tenants are 



