A Monograph of Marcus Island. 113 



an old booby is a thing to be long remembered. Two adult birds, 

 Museum Nos. 2076 (ad.) and 2077 (f.), measured respectively: 

 I^eugth 30.00, 31.00; wing 15.50, 15.75; tail 7.75, 8.50 ; tarsus 1.90, 

 1.75; toe 3.30, 3.25 ; culmen 4.10, 3.90; depth of bill 1.35, 1.30. 



Fregata aquila Linn. Man-o'-War Bird. 



Sailing about high overhead this avian pirate of the tropical 

 seas was to be seen almost every day during the course of our long, 

 tedious voyage. It became more abundant as we approached the 

 little speck of land that formed the object of our journey. We 

 found it nesting, not in great numbers to be sure, but sufficiently 

 abundant to warrant it being called very common. Having in 

 mind previous accounts of the species nesting on low scrub bushes, 

 on grass tussocks, and even on the ground, as well as on the face 

 of cliffs, it took two or three days for me to give up the idea of 

 finding it rearing its young in nests similarly placed. However, 

 after some search I found the hawks nesting in two distinct colo- 

 nies a little way from the centre of the island towards the north 

 point; not near the ground, as I had expedled, but in the very 

 topmost branches of the tallest trees that grew about the curious 

 open spaces in the thick wooded part of this island. Some sites 

 were thirty-five feet or more from the ground. The bulky pile of 

 loose sticks that formed the rough platform nest on which the 

 half-grown young were sitting had evidently been broken from the 

 dead limbs of blighted trees near at hand, as the fresh ends of the 

 sticks testified. These platforms varied greatly in dimensions; 

 some — twenty inches across and eight inches deep — had to all ap- 

 pearances been made new that year ; some more bulky ones had 

 been repaired and used over several times. As stated twigs were 

 the principal building material, though dried leaves and occasion- 

 ally a few white bones were seen in the nests ; but without excep- 

 tion all were badly befouled with the birds' excrement. The 

 young were all more than half grown and were not very closely 

 attended by the parents, though I saw several feeding their young 

 on the plunder they had secured from the boobies. I had read 

 much when a boy of this natural bird pirate, that feeds on the fish 

 caught by other sea fowl ; but what I had heard and read about it 

 did little to detract from the interest I felt in watching for the first 

 time in my life the exploits of an accomplished robber. 



Occasional Papers B. P. B. M., Vol. II.. No. i.— 8. 



