500 FRIGATE PELICAN. 



in form resembling that of the Cormorants, which also never plunge from 

 on wing in pursuit of fish, and only dip into the water when dropping 

 from a perch or a rock to escape danger, as the Anhingas and some other 

 birds are also accustomed to do. 



When the Frigate Pelican is in want of a dead fish, a crab, or any 

 floating garbage suited to its appetite, it approaches the water in the man- 

 ner of Gulls, holding its wings high, and beating them until the bill has 

 performed its duty, which being accomplished, the bird immediately rises 

 in the air and devours its prey. 



These birds see well at night, although they never go to sea except- 

 ing by day. At various times I have accidentally sailed by mangrove 

 keys on which hundreds were roosted, and apparently sound asleep, when, 

 on my firing a gun for the purpose of starting whatever birds might be 

 there, they would all take to wing and sail as beautifully as during day, 

 returning to the trees as the boats proceeded. They are by no means 

 shy ; indeed they seem unaware of danger from a gun, and rarely all go 

 off when a party is shooting at them, vmtil a considerable number has 

 been obtained. The only difficulty I experienced in procuring them was 

 on account of the height to which they so soon rgse on leaving the trees ; 

 but we had excellent guns, and our worthy pilot's " Long Tom" dis- 

 tinguished itself above the rest. At one place, where we found many 

 hundreds of them, they sailed for nearly half an hour over our heads, and 

 about thirty were shot, some of them at a remarkable height, when we 

 could hear the shot strike them, and when, as they fell to the water, the 

 sound of their great wings whirling through the air resembled that pro- 

 duced by a sail flapping during a calm. When shot at and touched ever 

 so slightly, they disgorge their food in the manner of Vultures, Gulls and 

 some Terns ; and if they have fallen and are approached, they continue to 

 vomit the contents of their stomach, which at times are extremely putrid and 

 nauseous. When seized, they evince little disposition to defend themselves, 

 although ever so slightly wounded, but struggle and beat themselves until 

 killed. Should you, however, place your fingers within their open bill, you 

 might not withdraw them scatheless. 



They are extremely silent, and the only note which I heard them 

 utter was a rough croaking one. They devour the young of the Brown 

 Pelican when quite small, as well as those of other birds whose nests are 

 flat and exposed during the absence of the parent birds ; but their own 

 young suffer in the same manner from the still more voracious Turkey 



