212 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



We were much struck with the quiet and confiding 

 behaviour of the birds ; and it was only towards the very 

 end of out photographic stalks, when the camera had 

 clicked within six feet of the nests, that they became 

 uneasy and clumsily flew from their nests. In respect 

 of this awkward behaviour on shore, nothing could be 

 in greater contrast as compared with their inimitable 

 powers of flight, once launched into their native element. 



To this awkwardness, and the strange results it some- 

 times leads to, we have referred in the account of Swan 

 Island. At present we were more concerned in admiring, 

 at such close quarters, the beautiful greenish-purple, 

 sheeny reflections of their plumage, and the magnificent 

 spread, fully six feet, of their powerful wings. In a dead 

 specimen, it was once as much as we could do to touch 

 either tip with outspread arms. It must be a sensation, 

 rarely experienced by bird-lovers, to have a colony 

 of such great birds swooping and beating the air just 

 above one's head ; and the memory of this is one which 

 we shall always look back upon and treasure as one of the 

 most delightful of our experiences. It might be imagined 

 that with such formidable bills as these birds possess, 

 and with such powerful wings, frigate-birds might be 

 capable of giving the disturber of their lonely haunts an 

 uncomfortable time of it ; but whether they could do so 

 or not if so disposed, they are in fact the mosfc mildly 

 behaved of birds. 



As we have indicated above, both the cock and hen 

 assist in the process of incubating their eggs. Each nest 

 we examined contained, either a single large white egg or 

 a freshly hatched naked squab. The very old cock birds^ 

 easily distinguished by the curious vivid red translucent 

 sac, which hangs pendulous from the throat — did not 

 seem to concern themselves greatly with these domestic 

 cares. This may have seemed more apparent than was 

 realh^ the case, for these old cocks were very scarce in 

 comparison with younger males, which did not appear to 

 be provided with distensible sacs. Of the thousands of 



