38o 
SWIMMERS. 
appearance is generally hailed by mariners as an indication of 
the approach ot land. Yet numbers are not wanting around 
the remotest and most sequestered islands in the midst of the 
wide ocean. There they live in companies, associated with 
CjuUs, 1 ropic Birds, and their tyrannical persecutor, the Frigate, 
who, ajipreciating their assistance as providers, dwells and rests 
in the same retreats. 
Among the Frigates, some (probably the males after incuba- 
tion) live in societies apart from the rest, dispersed to situations 
most suitable for obtaining pillage. 
Boobies utter a loud cry, something in sound betwixt that 
of the Raven and the (loose ; and this quailing is heard more 
particularly when they are pursued by the Frigate, or when, 
assembled together, they happen to be seized by any sudden 
panic. As they can only begin the motion of their wings by 
starting from some lofty station, they usually perch like Cormo- 
rants, and in flying stretch out the neck and display the tail. 
According to Dampier, in the Isle of Aves these birds breed 
on trees, though in other places they nestle on the ground, and 
always associate in numbers in the same place. They lay one 
or two eggs, and the young continue for a long time covered 
for the most part with a very soft and white down. The flesh 
is black and unsavory, yet sailors frequently make a meal of 
it. In summer they are not uncommon on the coasts of the 
Southern States. 
The Booby is chiefly restricted to the tropical or sub-tropical 
seas, but an occasional example wanders as far north as off the 
coast of Georgia. 
Note. The Blue-faced Booby {Stila cyanops) and the Red- 
footed Booby {Sula piscator) occasionally straggle north to the 
Florida waters j and the Anjiinga (^Anhitiga ajthin^a)., also a trop- 
ical bird, has been taken off North Carolina and on the Mississippi 
River. 
