THE FRIGATE-BIRD.

been in bed half an hour at least, hopped out on a twig with a
twitter and a bob of his head and a flirt of his tail, as much
as to say, ‘“‘ Who’s to send me to bed if Pm not ready to go?”
and sung a few lively notes, and then, with a chirp or two,
hopped out of sight again. A whippoorwill fluttered clumsily
down a few yards off, and set up his nightly ery, seemingly in
the greatest hurry to have poor Will punished immediately ;
while his companion in the next field was equally impatient,
answering cry for.cry, each one going faster and faster until
they were quite out of breath.

Uncle John had a quiet talk with Mary and George about
these birds, while little Lucy sat and listened.

“TY must tell you about the strange birds one sees on the
ocean,” said Uncle John.

“On the ocean, Uncle John? How can there be birds there

where there are no places for them to build their nests?” asked
Mary.
“Why, don’t you know?” replied George, somewhat impor-
tantly, because of his superior knowledge. “Haven’t you seen
gulls? I’m sure they are ocean birds, but they build their nests
on the land. Then we've read about stormy petrels—how
sometimes they fly so far out at sea that they are glad to light
on a ship to rest.”

“You do not find either gulls or stormy petrels very far
from the land—from an island at least,” Uncle John remarked.
“But I can tell you about a bird that flies hundreds of miles
over the ocean, and seems never to need rest. Indeed, some
people say that it sleeps upon the wing.

“This is the frigate-pelican or man-of-war bird. It is a
native of the Tropics, black in color, and is quite large, measur-
ing about three feet from head to tail. Its tail is long and
forked, and it has long, narrow wings, which when spread out

- measure ten or twelve feet from tip to tip. With these wings
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