THE BOOfcY. 329 



Dampier's account of their hostilities. 



Yucatan. " These birds were crowded so thick, 

 that I could not/' he says, " pass their haunt 

 without being incommoded by their pecking.- 

 I observed that they were ranged in pairs, which 

 made me presume that they were male and fe- 

 male. When I struck them, some flew away ; 

 but the greater number remained, and would 

 not stir, notwithstanding all I could do to rouse 

 them. I remarked also, that the man-of-war 

 birds and the boobies always placed sentinels 

 over their young, especially when they went to 

 sea for provisions. Of the man-of-war birds, 

 many were sick or maimed, and seemed unfit to 

 procure their subsistence. They lived not with 

 the rest of their kind ; either expelled from so- 

 ciety, or separated by choice: but were dispersed 

 in different places, probably that they might 

 have a better opportunity of pillaging. I once 

 saw more than twenty on one of the islands, sally 

 out from time to time into the open country to 

 carry off booty, and return again almost imme- 

 diately. When one surprised a young booby 

 that had no guard, he gave it a violent peck on. 

 the back to make it disgorge, which it did in- 

 stantly : it cast up one or two fish about the bulk 

 of one's hand, which the old man-of-war bird 

 swallowed still more hastily. The vigorous ones 

 play the same game with the old boobies which 

 they find at sea. I saw one myself which flew 

 right against a booby ; and with one stroke of 

 its bill, made him deliver up a fish that he had 

 VOL. iv. NO. -29. 2 T 



