_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 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.[133] 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.
[133] 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.