260 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



sought for safety. It is no unusual thing for it to rob the Gannet of 

 the fish which it has just caught : the unfortunate bird acting as pur- 

 veyor to this sea-robber. 



The Frigate Bird is of such a combative temperament, and has 

 such an unbounded confidence in its strength, that it is not afraid of 

 man. It has been known to dash at a sailor, and to snatch at the 

 fish which he held in his hand. M. de Kerhoent, a French navigator, 

 relates that, during a residence at the Island of Ascension, a perfect 

 cloud of Frigate Birds surrounded his crew. They hovered about a 

 few feet above the coppers of the open-air kitchen, in order to carry 

 off the meat, without being intimidated in the least by the presence 

 of his followers. Some of them approached so near, that M. de 

 Kerhoent knocked down one of the impudent intruders with a blow 

 of his stick. 



They assemble in large flocks on the islands where they are accus- 

 tomed to breed. In the month of May they begin to repair their 

 old or construct new nests. They pluck off with their beaks from the 

 bush small dry branches, and with these pieces of stick crossed and 

 re-crossed a foundation is formed. These nests are situated upon 

 trees which hang over the water, or are placed on rocks overjutting 

 the sea ; in them they lay one egg of a pure white colour. 



These birds are common in the Brazils, in the Island of Ascen- 

 sion, at Timor, the Ladrone Islands, and the Moluccas ; in fact, they 

 are to be found in most tropical waters. Navigators, struck with the 

 lightness of their flight and their slender shape, have given them the 

 name they bear, thus comparing them with the fleetest and most 

 elegant of men-of-war. Sir Hans Sloane, who saw numbers of them 

 at Jamaica, describes them under the name of Man-of-war Birds. 

 " They fly," he says, " like kites, look black, are very large-winged 

 in proportion to their size, and they fight with sea-gulls for their 

 prey." They are eminently raptorial. Ray speaks of their eagle eye, 

 vulturine claws, and cat-like gliding movements, their immense extent 

 of wing, and their dashing swoop. 



Pelicanid^e. 



This family, which Mr. Gray makes the sixth and last of Palmi- 

 pedes, includes Cuvier's Totipalmes, or birds having the hind toe 

 united to the others by a single membrane. This extensive family 

 comprehends the Tropic Bird {Phaeton), the Darter (Plotus),- the 

 Gannets (Sula), the Cormorants (Phalacrocorax), and the Pelicans 

 (Pelicanus). 



