fHE NIDiOLOGlST. 



39 



On the Man-o'-War Bird: 



THERE are times in our lives when 

 Fortuna utterly forsakes us, and 

 Mouius appears to step in and vex us. 

 Hard luck is the prime feature of an unfor- 

 tunate period, which will sooner or later 

 assail ever}^ collector, and it does seem as 

 though the "unlucky deal "always appears 

 at the wrong season. Eisten to my tale of 

 woe! 



In the winter of '91 I went to East 

 Florida. My trunk was lost on Indian 

 river and it was carried about on the little 

 steamer for over two weeks belore it turned 

 up. In the meantime I was at an out-of- 

 the-way place; in other woids, in the heart 

 of the wilderness, quite twenty miles from 

 civilization, and with only a half pound of 

 arsenic for emergencies. A number of 

 small birds were prepared, and I lived in 

 daily hopes of seeing my trunk, which had 

 miscarried through the shiftlessness of the 

 officials. 



One afternoon a flight of Man-o'-War 

 Hawks began and, continued for three days; 

 lasting almost uninterruptedly each day 

 from four p. m. till dark. I say uninterrupt- 

 edly, for although the flocks were rarely con- 

 tinuous, still it was the rule that before one 

 flock had disappeared, another appeared in 

 the distance. They are slow flyers, when 

 taking their migrating gait and could, 

 therefore, be observed to advantage. 



I counted over sixty flocks on one after- 

 noon, within three hours. These groups 

 generally embraced eight or ten birds and 

 though the flocks at times were small, only 

 four or five, and occasionally pairs, or even 

 singles, evidently stragglers, at times there 

 were as many as twenty or more, and often 

 twelve to fifteen. One flock had over sixty 

 birds, and on two occasions over thirty 

 were counted. 



The first day of the flight, in early Feb- 

 ruary, was noticed on the beach of the thin 

 strip of land lying between the (so-called) 

 Indian river and the ocean. The birds all 



flew to the south and never varied their 

 course, except when they veered on account 

 of the guns of our party. The second day 

 the birds appeared to choose the western 

 shore of the strip, which is about two hun- 

 dred rods wide. The third day they again 

 selected the beach, still flying south, none 

 being observed on the lagoon, Indian river. 

 The first day there was some wind, and 

 this appeared to cause the Hawks to fly 

 lower, and several were killed at no greater 

 a height than fifteen or twenty yards, the 

 shooters concealing themselves in the scrub 

 of saw palmetto. The second day was 

 calmer, and the Hawks flew very high, so 

 high in fact that few were taken, compara- 

 tively, although they were much more 

 numerous. The third day they flew high 

 and were comparatively scarce. Besides 

 these days, they appeared at various times, 

 but generally flew well out to sea or very 

 high in the air. 



The oldest inhabitant, could not give an 

 instance of a winter flight of this nature, or 

 in fact a big flight at any season. The 

 speculations were various as to where they 

 came from, so continuously for three days. 

 The flight is graceful, the exceedingly 

 long and pointed wings moving with easy 

 beat, the picture of symmetry. When fired 

 at, the birds at once mounted from the dan- 

 ger and then continued their slow rythmic 

 stroke. Not like the long sweep of the 

 Heron, in fact the Man-o'-War bird may be 

 said to have a spasmodic motion, spasmodic 

 at each stroke, and yet metrical in its en- 

 tirety. We may compare it best, perhaps, 

 with the flight of the Nighthawk, when 

 feeding on a summer evening, but it is 

 grand in its majesty. The flight in no way 

 compares with the motions of the Raptores 

 when on the wing, but of these, the Falcons 

 more nearly approach it. However, the 

 Man-o'-War Hawk can sail with ea.se when 

 so inclined, and I have seen it at a great 

 height. 



Our little boarding house or hotel, if you 

 wish to call it so, mustered several guns; 



