The Frigate Bird is principally characterised by a strong, robust, trenchant bill, longer than the head, with mandibles hooked at the point; nostrils linear; orbits naked; throat dilatable; the front of the neck bare of feathers; wings very long and narrow, first two feathers longest; tail lengthy and forked; feet short; toes united by a membrane deeply notched.
The Frigate Bird spreads its wings to the extent of three yards; its power of flight is, therefore, very great. It inhabits the tropical seas of both the Old and New World, and navigators assure us that they have met with it two or three hundred leagues from any shore. When a hurricane arises they mount up far above the storm, and remain in these empyrean regions until it is again fine weather. In consequence of their immense expansion of wing, they can sustain themselves in the air for days together without taking or requiring rest.
Their sight is so piercing that, at a distance far beyond that which would render them invisible to us, they can perceive the flights of Exocœti, or Flying Fish. From their elevated situation, they dart down upon their winged prey, which has relinquished its native element; and, keeping their neck and feet in a horizontal position, and thus grazing the waves, they grasp their victim, which little expected to meet with an enemy in the element which it 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 thus acts as purveyor 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 to defy even man. It has been known to dash at a sailor, and to snatch at the fish which he held in his hand. M. de Kerhoënt, 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 Kerhoënt knocked down one of the impudent intruders with a blow of his stick.
When these birds have thoroughly feasted on fish, or any other of the marine creatures which constitute their food, they take flight landwards, and proceed to perch upon a tree, in order to digest their food in peace.
They assemble in large flocks on the islands where they are accustomed to breed. In the month of May they begin to repair their old, or construct new nests. They pluck off small dry branches with their beaks, and with these pieces of stick crossed and recrossed a foundation is formed. These nests are suspended from trees which hang over the water, or are placed on rocks in desert islands, overhanging the sea; in them they lay two or three eggs, said to be of a carnation colour dotted with crimson.
These birds are common in the Brazils, in the Island of Ascension, at Timor, the Ladrone Islands, and the Moluccas: in fact, they are to be found in most tropical countries. 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.
The Palmipede we are about to notice received from Linnæus the mythological name of Phaeton, in allusion to the son of Apollo and Clymene, who is said to have made an audacious attempt to drive the chariot of the Sun.