A ve-s. 43 



hunt the Gannet backwards and forwards, continually trj'ing to get 

 beneath it and to cut off its retreat to the trees. The chase may 

 last several minutes, but at length the exhausted bird disgorges 

 some of the fish it had swallowed, and this is immediately caught 

 in mid - air by one of the pursuers. Mr. lioss told me that 

 occasionally two Frigate-birds would come into collision and break 

 their wings, but this I never saw. The twigs for building the 

 nests are obtained on the same system of robbery, and although 

 these birds will pick up twigs floating in the sea and lying on 

 the beach, I never saw one attempt to break them off the dead 

 branches as the Gannets do. If, when a nest is partly built, 

 the bird in charge of it is killed, doze us of its neighbours come 

 round and steal the material thus conveniently collected for them. 

 The nest consists merely of a few handfuls of twigs placed on the 

 fork of a small branch, and it seems wonderful how the egg 

 remains on it. When the young has been hatched a few days the 

 nest becomes converted into a hard, nearly flat cake of twigs and 

 excrement. Old nests, and those of Gannets, are often utilized. 



About the beginning of January the adult males begin to acquire 

 the remarkable pouch of scarlet skin beneath their throat. This 

 they can inflate till it is nearly as large as the rest of the body, 

 and a dozen or more of these birds sitting in a tree with out- 

 stretched drooping wings and this great scarlet bladder under their 

 heads are a most remarkable sight. AYhen a hen bird approaches 

 the tree the males utter a peculiar cry, a sort of ' wow-wow-wow- 

 wow,' and clatter their beaks like castanets, at the same time 

 shaking the wings. When they take to flight the air is allowed 

 to escape from the pouch, but occasionally they might be seen 

 flying with it partly inflated. 



The pairing season extended from January till April ; eggs were 

 found in February, and in August there were still manj young 

 birds in white down, but by October all had flown. The young 

 continue to get a certain amount of food from their parents even 

 after the latter have begun to build again. 



In the neighbourhood of Flying Fish Cove the large species 

 builds near the sea, the small one on the higher part of the island 

 farther inland. The cry of the male in the small species is quite 

 different from, and much more musical than that of the large one. 



At present Frigate-birds are one of the chief articles of food 

 of the inhabitants of Christmas Island, and they are very good 

 indeed. The usual way of obtaining them is for a man to climb 

 into the topmost branches of a high tree near the coast, armed 

 with a pole eight or ten feet long and a red handkerchief. The 

 latter he waves about, at the same time yelling as loudly as possible. 

 The birds attracted by the noise and the red colour swoop round 

 in large numbers, when they are knocked down with the long pole. 

 In this way sufficient birds^ to supply the small colony with food 

 can usually be obtained in an hour or two ; occasionally, however, 

 in unfavourable states of the wind, they are difficult to procure. 



