408 The Frigate Bird 



because I feel sure that some Frigate Birds do not carry 

 one of these bladders. In watching numbers of them 

 I have noticed that some had it, and some had not ; 

 but whether those without it were young ones or hens 

 I am unable to say. 



Their legs are short and feeble, and although the feet 

 are webbed the webs are only about half way down the 

 toes. So that they are obviously meant to live practi- 

 cally on the wing. All naturalists agree that they 

 are never seen swimming, certainly I have never seen 

 one doing so, and as for walking on land it is almost 

 an impossibility with them. They are said to roost 

 upon the branches of trees, a most unusual thing for 

 sea-birds to do, and I will not deny the possibility 

 of this. But whenever I have seen them ashore, 

 they have roosted and laid their eggs and incubated 

 among rugged rocks, where, by the aid of their wings, 

 they could flutter heavily from one irregularity to 

 another. A flat surface to walk upon is useless to 

 them. Their method of feeding again is peculiarly 

 hawk-like and different from that of all other sea-birds. 



So great an authority and careful an observer as 

 Charles Darwin, while not stating explicitly that the 

 Frigate Bird snatches its food from the sea-surface, 

 says that if the offal, etc., which they desire sinks 

 more than six or eight inches below the surface it is lost 

 to them, as they cannot dive like any other sea-fowl. 

 He also notes, as I have done myself, that such is 

 their power of manoeuvring upon the wing that they 

 can, and do, snatch the just hatched turtles on their 

 toddling way down the beach to the sea from the pit 

 where they were born. To watch a Frigate Bird 

 poised, say, a thousand feet above the sea almost 

 motionless, except for the slow turning of the head 

 from side to side, and the wide-eyed glance of the 



