FRIGATE PELICAN. 501 



Buzzard. The notion that the Frigate Bird forces the Pelicans and 

 Boobies to disgorge their prey is erroneous. The Pelican, if attacked or 

 pursued by this bird, could alight on the water or elsewhere, and by one 

 stroke of its sharp and powerful bill destroy the rash aggressor. The 

 Booby would in all probability thrust its strong and pointed bill against 

 the assailant with equal success. The Cayenne Tern, and other species 

 of that genus, as well as several small Gulls, all abundant on the Florida 

 coasts, are its purveyors, and them it forces to disgorge or drop their prey. 

 Those of the deep are the dolphins, porpoises, and occasionally the sharks. 

 Their sight is wonderfully keen, and they now and then come down from 

 a great height to pick up a dead fish only a few inches long floating on 

 the water. Their flesh is tough, dark, and, as food, unfit for any other 

 person than one in a state of starvation. 



I have given a figure of a very beautiful old male in spring plumage, 

 which was selected from a great number of all ages. I have also repre- 

 sented the feet of an individual between two and three years old, on ac- 

 count of the richness of their colour at that age, whereas in the adult 

 males they are quite black. 



Pelecanus Aquilus, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 216. 



Pelecanus AauiLus, leucocephalus, and Palmerstoni, Lath. Ind. Oniitli. 



vol. ii. pp. 885, 886. 

 Tachypetes Aquilus, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 40G. 

 Frigate Pelican, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 491. 



Adult Male. Plate CCLXXI. 



Bill much longer than the head, strong, broader than deep, excepting 

 towards the curved extremity, the edges irregularly jagged. Upper man- 

 dible with the dorsal line shghtly concave, at the tip decurved, its ridge 

 broad and nearly flat at the base, narrowed and more convex towards the 

 end, the sides separated from the ridge by a narrow groove, convex, the 

 edges sharp and inflected, with a prominence at the commencement of the 

 curve of the elongated compressed hooked point. Nostrils basal, linear, 

 inconspicuous. Lower mandible with the angle extremely long, narrow, 

 the membrane bare and dilatable into a small pouch, the very short dor- 

 sal line decurved, the sides erect at the base, convex in the rest of their 

 extent, the edges sharp and much inflected, at the narrow tip decurved. 



Head of moderate size, oblong. Neck of moderate length, stout. 

 Body rather slender. Feet very short, stout ; tibia very short ; tarsus 



t 



