1886. ] The Torture of the Fish-Hawk. 225 
They are large, active-winged birds, never soaring, are quite 
strong, and weigh about six or seven pounds. On leaving the 
trees lining the shore, perhaps allured by a school of mullet in 
the channel, they seem eager for action, and all alive with expec- 
tation, but just before stooping on the fish would set up a fright- 
ened, discordant scream, and make for the shore with a haste so 
ill-advised as seriously to impede progress. Before the trees were 
reached, confidence would be restored, and returning, the same 
singular performance would be repeated, perhaps for three or four 
times before the game was finally secured. No enemy was in 
sight. The breeze would flow gently. All was serene, yet terror 
would take possession of the bird and almost paralyze its efforts 
by making it frantic. I soon learned the reason for this coward- 
ice. Stretched at length on the deck of a boat in the early morn- . 
ing in the pass of Boca Grande, one of the entrances to Charlottes 
harbor, I saw a fine specimen of hawk cross overhead and pro- 
ceed seaward to find a dinner. The excursion was successful 
as the pass swarmed with fish coming in with the tide. A fine 
one soon left its element and swung aloft into the air in the talons 
of the bird, which at once began its return. But a new-comer ap- 
peared upon the scene. A black creature which seemed all wings 
and shaped like a flattened letter M, dropped from above and con- 
fronted the hawk, which at once dropped its prey and uttered a 
Scream so brimful of mortal terror that it should have excited 
the sympathy of all living things within the compass of its sound. 
It was not disturbed by actual contact. The two birds were not 
within fifty feet of each other, but the hawk exerted itself with the 
same wild energy to get to cover which I had before so often 
witnessed when no black monster was in the vicinage. The in- 
truder was a frigate-bird, and on looking upwards a score of them 
could be seen a mile or more from the earth, floating round and 
round, on motionless wings. The dropped fish was seized in the 
beak of the bird long before it reached the water, and with a 
Sweep of exquisite grace, on tense wings, fronting a mild breeze, 
the corsair was lifted half a mile into the air, where another aston- 
ishing performance was at once initiated. A bite was taken from 
the body, being torn away by a wringing motion of the head 
which sent the carcass whirling, while the bird masticated the 
morsel in shape for swallowing. Of course the fish began to 
obey the law of falling bodies, and the bird, folding its wings 
