174 
THE FRIGATE PELICAN. 
pilot’s “ Long Tom” distinguished itself above the rest. At one place, 
where we found many hundreds of them, they sailed for nearly half an hour 
over our heads, and about thirty were shot, some of them at a remarkable 
height, when we could hear the shot strike them, and when, as they fell to 
the water, the sound of their great wings whirling through the air resembled 
that produced by a sail flapping during a calm. When shot at and touched 
ever so slightly, they disgorge their food in the manner of Vultures, Gulls 
and some Terns ; and if they have fallen and are approached, they continue 
to vomit the contents of their stomach, which at times are extremely putrid 
and nauseous. When seized, they evince little disposition to defend them- 
selves, although ever so slightly wounded, but struggle and beat themselves 
until killed. Should you, however, place your fingers within their open 
bill, you might not withdraw them scatheless. 
They are extremely silent, and the only note which I heard them utter 
was a rough croaking one. They devour the young of the Brown Pelican 
when quite small, as well as those of other birds whose nests are flat and 
exposed during the absence of the parent birds ; but their own young suffer 
in the same manner from the still more voracious Turkey Buzzard. The 
notion that the Frigate-bird forces tl 3 Pelicans and Boobies to disgorge their 
prey is erroneous. The Pelican, if attacked or pursued by this bird, could 
alight on the water or elsewhere, and by one stroke of its sharp and powerful 
bill destroy the rash aggressor. The Booby would in all probability thrust 
its strong and pointed bill against the assailant with equal success. The 
Cayenne Tern, and other species of that genus, as well as several small Gulls, 
all abundant on the Florida coasts, are its purveyors, and them it forces to 
disgorge or drop their prey. Those of the deep are the dolphins, porpoises, 
and occasionally the sharks. Their sight is wonderfully keen, and they 
now and then come down from a great height to pick up a dead fish only a 
few inches long floating on the water. Their flesh is tough, dark, and, as 
food, unfit for any other person than one in a state of starvation. 
Tachypetes Aquilus, Bonap. Syn., p. 406. 
Frigate Pelican, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 491. 
Frigate Pelican, Tachypetes Aquilis, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 495; vol. v. p. 634. 
Adult, 41, 86. 
Besides constantly on and about the Florida Keys, where it breeds in vast 
numbers on trees. Banges over the Gulf of Mexico, Bays of Texas, but 
rarely seen to the eastward of North Carolina. 
Adult Male. 
Bill much longer than the head, strong, broader than deep, excepting 
