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THE FRIGATE PELICAN. 



Tachypetes Aquilus, Vieill. 



PLATE CCLXXI. Abult. 



Previous to my visit to the Florida Keys, I had seen but few Fri- 

 gate Birds, and those only at some distance, while I was on the Gulf of 

 Mexico, so that I could merely recognise them by their mode of flight. 

 On approaching Indian Key, however, I observed several of them, and 

 as I proceeded farther south, their numbers rapidly increased ; but on 

 the Tortugas very few were observed. This bird rarely travels farther 

 eastward than the Bay of Charleston in South Carolina, although it is 

 abundant at all seasons from Cape Florida to Cape Sable, the two ex- 

 treme points of the peninsula. How far south it may be found I cannot 

 tell. 



The Frigate Pelicans may be said to be as gregarious as our Vultures : 

 You see them in small or large flocks, according to circumstances. Like 

 our Vultures, they spend the greater part of the day on wing, searching 

 for food ; and hke them also, when gorged or roosting, they collect in 

 large flocks, either to fan themselves or to sleep close together. They are 

 equally lazy, tyrannical, and rapacious, domineering over birds weaker 

 than themselves, and devouring the young of every species, whenever an 

 opportunity offers, in the absence of the parents ; in a word, they are 

 most truly Marine Vultures. 



About the middle of May, a period which to me appeared very late 

 for birds found in so warm a climate as that of the Florida Keys, the 

 Frigate Pelicans assemble in flocks of from fifty to five hundred pairs or 

 more. They are seen flying at a great height over the islands on which 

 they have bred many previous seasons, courting for hours together ; after 

 which they return towards the mangroves, alight on them, and at once 

 begin to repair the old nests or construct new ones. They pillage each 

 other's nests of their materials, and make excursions for more to the near- 

 est keys. They break the dry twigs of trees with ease, passing swiftly 

 on wing, and snapping them off" by a single grasp of their powerful bill. 

 It is indeed a beautiful sight to see them when thus occupied, especially 

 when several are so engaged, passing and repassing with the swiftness of 



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