Part 48

“The bird had died during the night by the side of the coop on which they both usually roosted, but without attempting to perch. As I removed the dead bird before the other Booby had quitted its morning roost, it was interesting to see it, under a sense of loneliness, running its head into every opened door, to seek its lost companion.”

FRIGATE-BIRD.

Man-of-war bird.

Fregata aquilus.

Pelecanus aquilus, +Linn.+—Aud. pl. 271. Pelecanus leucocephalus, (young), +Gmel.+ Fregata aquilus, +Cuv.+ Tachypetes aquilus, +Vieill.+

Length 38 inches, expanse 85, flexure 26, tail 17³⁄₄, rictus 5³⁄₄, tarsus 1, middle toe 3. Male. Irides black; feet black; beak bluish-grey, blackish at tip: throat-pouch colour of red-lead, slightly pendent at bottom like a dewlap. Whole plumage black, sometimes brilliantly glossed, the head and wings with green, the neck and fore-back with purple.

Female. Feet delicate pink (perhaps not constant); orbits and pouch pale blue; plumage unglossed, back and wing-coverts smoke-brown; breast pure white, which forms a narrow collar. Under parts smoke-brown.

Young. Feet bluish-white. Head, upper-neck, throat, breast and belly pure white. The rest of the plumage black, with some iridescence.

But that the history of the Pelican and the Booby made allusion to the roosting place near Bluefields necessary, I should have preferred to describe it under the present article; for though the trees are common to the three species, the former two frequent the place less numerously, and less constantly than the Frigates. At most hours of the day, one either sees a large number of these birds resting on the lofty trees, or else soaring and circling round and round over the place. Occasionally, in the middle of the day we see half a dozen sailing at an immense height in the air; where their size and colour, the graceful freedom of their motions, and the sublimity of their elevation, might cause them to be confounded with the John Crow Vulture, were it not for the curvature of their wings, the long-pointed tail, often opened and closed, and a superior elegance in their general form.

Being desirous of knowing at what hour the Frigates came home to the roosting place, I visited it on several evenings. On the first occasion, arriving there just as the sun was setting, I found I was not sufficiently early to witness the congregating of the birds, for my ears were saluted, even when in the high-road, by the loud and unpleasant croaking of the Boobies. On my getting to the foot of the first Birch-tree, I could discern many of these sitting on the branches; but as the view was much intercepted by the bushes and trees around, I scrambled down the shingly precipice, to the sea-side. Then on looking up I saw the boughs of the birch immediately over my head, studded with these noisy birds, preening their plumage, or scolding and fighting harshly with one another, as they sat side by side. While thus gazing upward, I narrowly escaped the misfortune of Tobit. There may have been thirty Boobies in sight, and about eight or ten Frigates, but no Pelicans except three on a tree at a little distance. All on a sudden, however, the Frigates flew off as by common impulse, accompanied by at least fifty more, which I had not seen, they having been concealed by the foliage, or having been sitting on the neighbouring trees,—and by as many Boobies, leaving a good number of the latter, however, still remaining.

Though they all flew about in various directions over the sea, they did not retire from the vicinity; but the Frigates presently separated from the Boobies, taking a loftier elevation, where they sailed and circled in silent dignity, while the Boobies were clamorous in their evolutions.

The latter soon sought their perches again; and this gave rise to incessant squabbles, for if a flyer attempted to alight beside a sitter, the latter, as if affronted at the intrusion, began, with elevated wings and opened beak, to resist, croaking vociferously. The Frigates were long before they returned; some sailed out half a mile, and there performed their elegant manœuvrings, while others still hovered above the roosting trees. Among these some were wholly black, some had the white breast of the female sex, and others the white head of youth, and one was conspicuous by his blood-red pouch, inflated into a tense bladder beneath his chin. From the fact that very few, indeed, possess this red pouch, I incline to think it a peculiarity of mature age; for many had the livery of the adult male, whose pouch was inconspicuous, and of a pale buff hue. At length, as the increased darkness gathered in, they also began one by one to settle, very charily, often making a feint to alight, and again sailing off. Some slowly wended their way farther down the bay, and some I left still in the air.

A few days after, I again went between three and four o’clock, but even then the Frigates were reposing in great numbers, but few Boobies, and no Pelicans. I shot a Frigate, which of course aroused the whole flock: and I then had an opportunity of ascertaining their numbers. As they sailed gracefully round, I counted them twice, and both times made them about fifty, but of course I could not be quite exact: from other observations, I should estimate the number of those which habitually repose there to be about sixty, more or less. During an hour and a half that I remained, they did not again alight, and when the sun was close to the horizon they were still soaring in their sublime evolutions. About one sixth of the number were white-headed, their snowy heads and breasts gleaming now and then, as the slanting rays were reflected from them to the observer; and several displayed the inflated scarlet pouch, a little constricted in the middle. As the Frigate flies, the form of its wings reminds one of enormous bats, but for the lengthened tail. When about to alight, they sometimes cackle a little, but are generally silent. As they sit on the branches they are incessantly employed in picking the vermin from their bodies, with which they are much infested. This is done partly with the beak, but partly with the foot; and I have seen them, after scratching themselves, put up the foot to the beak, apparently delivering something into the mouth. Occasionally they throw the head back, and make a loud clattering with the beak. Passing along the road one forenoon in May, a large number were wheeling round the roosting place, some alighting, and others rising. Those which were on the wing uttered, particularly as they swooped near the tree, on which they made as if they would alight, a repeated chuck, not loud, with a rather rapid iteration.

It would appear that this place has been frequented by the Frigates, for at least a hundred years. Robinson has this note: “On a large cotton-tree, between Mr. Wallo’s and the Cave, by the sea-side, come to roost many Man-of-war birds, about four o’clock in the evenings, which tree may be easily approached by a canoe, whence the Men-of-war and other sea-fowl may be shot, either in the evening, or before sunrise; for the Man-of-war birds will not leave their roosting-places before sunrise, in this resembling the Noddy. Dr. Gorse of Savanna le Mar, from whom I had this account, observed that the cotton-tree was blanched or whitened by their dung.” (MSS. ii. 83.)

I have never seen the Frigate fishing; but have frequently found flying-fish in its stomach half digested. Nor have I ever seen it attack the Booby, to make it disgorge, though the fishermen of Jamaica are familiar with this habit. Dr. Chamberlaine, who apparently describes from observation, says of the Frigate, “He is almost always a constant attendant upon our fishermen, when pursuing their vocation on the sand-banks in Kingston Harbour, or near the Palisados. Over their heads it takes its aerial stand, and watches their motions with a patience and perseverance the most exemplary. It is upon these occasions that the Pelicans, the Gulls, and other sea-birds become its associates and companions. These are also found watching with equal eagerness and anxiety the issue of the fishermen’s progress, attracted to the spot by the sea of living objects immediately beneath them.

An intelligent fisherman, who is in the habit of trading about the coast, and to Cuba, asserts that he has often seen the Frigates fishing far out at sea; such large fishes as Bonito, that leap out of water, being their prey; which they catch with the foot, plunging down on them, and then mounting, deliver the booty to the mouth like a Parrot. I feel it right to repeat this statement, though I think it improbable, from the weakness of the foot. He adds that they breed in great numbers on the Pedro Kays, laying on the bare rocks.

“And then it is, when these men are making their last haul, and the finny tribe are fluttering and panting for life, that this voracious bird exhibits his fierce and pugnacious propensities. His hungry companions have scarcely secured their prey by the side of the fishermen’s canoes, when with the lightning’s dart, they are pounced upon with such violence, that, to escape its rapacious assaults, they readily in turn yield their hard-earned booty to this formidable opponent. The lightness of its trunk, the short tarsi, and vast spread of wing, together with its long, slender, and forked tail, all conspire to give him a superiority over his tribe, not only in length and rapidity of flight, but also in the power of maintaining itself on outspread pinions in the regions of his aerial habitation amidst the clouds; where, at times, so lofty are its soarings, its figure becomes almost invisible to the spectator in this nether world.” (Jamaica Alm. 1843, p. 87.)

I know nothing positive of the nidification of the Frigate. On the face of Pedro Bluff, about four feet from the surface of the sea, which, however, in stormy weather dashes furiously into it, there is a hole into which a man may crawl, but which, within, widens into a spacious cavern. A person who had visited this place, told me that on its floor lie the skulls and bones of men, mouldering in damp and decay; the relics, probably of some of the unfortunate Indians, who preferred death by famine to the tortures and cruelties of the Spaniards. To this cave, he affirmed, the Frigates and Pelicans resort to lay their eggs; depositing them on the projecting ledges and shelves of the soft and marly rock. On my way up to Kingston from Bluefields in June, lying windbound under the Pedro, I induced a white man residing there to accompany me to the face of the Bluff, where he said the Pelicans and Frigates roosted, and where the former built and laid. After walking about a mile in the most burning heat, through cacti, aloes, and spinous bushes, a most peculiar vegetation, and over the sharp needle-like points of honey-comb limestone, occasionally leaping deep clefts, we came to the spot. Many birds of both kinds were sitting on the low stunted trees, but we could not find a single nest nor eggs; though, as my guide said, at some times they were numerous, but only of the Pelican; of the Frigate’s nidification he knew nothing.

The gular pouch of the old male, is not connected with the mouth, like that of the Pelican, but appears to be an air-cell; perhaps having some analogy to the erectile caruncles of the male Turkey. If we take the skeleton of the Pelican as a standard, the sternum of the Frigate is greatly developed laterally, as that of the Booby is, longitudinally. The middle claw is pectinated. I think I know of no bird so infested with entozoic worms as the Frigate. Immense bunches both of tænoid and cylindrical worms are found in almost every specimen, besides some curious kinds apparently of a higher organization. Bird-lice and bird-flies also infest it.

One which was wounded, on being taken up, was fierce, endeavouring to seize with his beak. And a specimen kept alive by Dr. Chamberlaine, became animated and pugnacious when the children or servants approached it, and struck at them with its formidable bill.

TROPIC BIRD.

Phaeton æthereus.—+LINN.+

Aud. pl. 262.

“Length 15 inches, expanse 32, flexure 10, beak 3, tail of 14 feathers, graduated, the middle pair 5 inches, the outmost 3, middle toe 1⁸⁄₁₀. Beak white, or very pale yellow; feet white; claws black. General plumage white, very silky, especially about the head: bases of crown feathers black. Upper neck, back, rump, and wing-coverts marked with cross, black, arcuated bars. Beneath each eye two black lines, which passing over the eye, meet at the back of the head. Tail, shafts and tips black. Five first quills have the outer edges and shafts black; the remaining primaries and secondaries, bluish; tertiaries chiefly black, with white edges, forming a black spot in each wing. Feet far behind.” (Rob. abridged.)

The bird which Robinson has described (MSS. ii. 124,) in the terms quoted below, is doubtless to be referred to this species, though from the shortness of the tail-feathers, and the colour of the beak and feet, I presume it to have been an immature specimen. He describes its habits as resembling those of the Terns: it was brought to him alive, having been knocked off a fish-pot-buoy; he kept it almost a week, feeding it with the offal of fish, which it ate greedily. When it attempted to walk, it spread its wings, and waddled along with much difficulty, which arose not only from the backward position of its legs, but also from their shortness and weakness. Sometimes it made a chattering noise, like the Belted Kingfisher, and it had another cry, not unlike that of a Gull. It would bite, upon occasion, very hard. The head and neck were very big in proportion.

It is mentioned to me as one of the constant frequenters of the Pedro Kays.

+Fam.+—LARIDÆ. (The Gulls.)

CRESTED TERN.