NEMESIS OF VULTURES Besides taking fresh-caught food from the osprey the bald eagle has been seen pursuing vultures and making them disgorge their meal of carrion. The eagle, if unsuccessful in catching the disgorged food in the air, may land on the ground and eat it there. We know also that the aerial flights the eagle uses to frighten the vulture into relinquishing his food are not idle threats, for an eagle has been seen to strike and kill a bird that refused to disgorge. Not only does our American eagle adopt such practices, but related species in other parts of the world behave in similar ways. The New Guinea sea eagle harries the osprey there, and on the west coast of Africa a sea eagle robs pelicans and cormorants of their prey. Certain long-winged birds of the tropical seas, such as _Fregata magnificens_, are known popularly as man-o'-war birds or frigate birds, reflecting their well-known character as pirates and tyrannical freebooters. The man-o'-war birds get part of their food from many creatures which swarm at the surface of the sea, but they also get much of their food by forcing terns, cormorants, boobies, and pelicans to deliver up their catch. In a tropical bay a school of small fish comes to the surface, perhaps driven by large fish below; from far and near terns gather, darting down to seize the fish that jump into the air. Above them circle the frigate birds, ready to dive down and chase and harry a successful tern until it drops its fish and leaves its prey to the freebooter. BOOBIES ARE VICTIMS Frigate birds may sail about, also, where a colony of nesting brown boobies is located, waiting for the birds laden with food to return home. When such a food-laden booby returns, the frigate bird dashes down at it, buffets it with its wings, snaps at it with its long, hooked bill, until the booby finally drops its fish for the man-o'-war bird to enjoy. The skua, a big, dark relative of the gull, is also known as a pirate. Its chief food is fish but it also eats many other foods from the sea. It rarely takes the trouble to fish for itself but watches until some other bird, perhaps a gull or a tern, has been successful in its hunting and then gives chase, forcing the unfortunate hunter to relinquish its food. Several of the skua's smaller relatives, the jaegars, have similar habits. It is written of the pomarine jaegar off our New England coast that they are notorious pirates and freebooters, the highwaymen among birds that prey on their neighbors on the fishing grounds and make them stand and deliver. The jaegar gives chase to a tern that has caught a fish and follows it through every twist and turn as if the two were yoked together. Finally the harassed tern drops its fish and the jaeger swoops down and seizes it before it can strike the water. BIRDS BATHING [Illustration]