THE FRIGATE PELICAN. 15 



pilot's ''Long Tom" distinguished 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 produced 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 them- 

 selves, 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 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. 



Tachypetes AauiLus.. Bonap. Syn., p. 406. 



Frigate Pelican, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 491. 



Frigate Pelican, Tachypetes Aquilis, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 495; vol. v. p. 634. 



Adult, 41, 86. 



Resides constantly on and about the Florida Keys, where it breeds in vast 

 numbers on trees. Ranges over the Gulf of Mexico, Bays of Texas, but 

 rarely seen to the eastward of North Carolina. 



Adult Male. 



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



