6.52 



CLASS AVES. 



come near ponds or lakes, they commit terrible devastation 

 among the fish, from their address and voracity. 



The FuiGATEs fly with uncommon rapidity, and with so 

 much force and permanence that they can proceed more than 

 four hundred leagues from any land, brave the tempests by 

 shooting above their sphere, and remain balanced in the air 

 until they can alight upon some pointed rock or wooded 

 islet, where alone they can rest, for the length of their wings 

 would prevent them from rising either from the waves or the 

 ground. Their sight must also be remarkably piercing, to 

 enable them to discover .* at such distances as quite escape our 

 vision, the places where pass the columns of flying-fish, on 

 which they prey. From such distances, however, they dart 

 upon them with the rapidity of an arrow ; and when they 

 find themselves close to the surface of the water, they have 

 the power of stopping and changing the direction of their 

 motions so as to shave along and catch these fish with their 

 bills, or with their talons, or both together. Instead of pre- 

 cipitating their head foremost, like birds which have the 

 faculty of diving, the frigate holds its neck and feet in a 

 horizontal direction ; striking the upper column of air with 

 its wings, then raising, and fixing them one against the other 

 above its back, it darts on its prey with such address and 

 velocity, that it rarely escapes. Thus the flying-fish, which 

 betakes itself to the air to escape from its pursuers in the 

 water, finds an equal death in the element in which it seeks 

 for safety. 



It is only in the inter-tropical seas of both worlds, or a 

 little beyond them, that the frigates are to be found. There 

 they unite to their own captures, those of the birds named 

 boobies, Avhich they force, by striking them with their wings, 

 or pecking them with their bill, to drop their booty, Avhich the 

 others seize as it falls. They have so much confidence in 

 their arms, that they will even brave man himself, ^^iscount 

 dc Querhocnt relates, that one of them approached so near 



