FRIGATE-BIRD.[132]
Man-of-war bird.
Fregata aquilus.
| Pelecanus aquilus, | Linn.—Aud. pl. 271. |
| Pelecanus leucocephalus, (young), | Gmel. |
| Fregata aquilus, | Cuv. |
| Tachypetes aquilus, | Vieill. |
[132] Length 38 inches, expanse 85, flexure 26, tail 17¾, rictus 5¾, 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.