they saw a small black dot in the blue sky.

"What can that be?" asked Alice. "It seems as if some one had thrown a
ball up there. Surely it cannot be a balloon such as I have read of,
though I never saw one."

"That is not a balloon, but a living creature," observed Jacob, who had
overheard her. "It is a frigate-bird watching for its prey; and before
long we shall see it pounce down to the surface of the ocean if it
observes anything to pick up, though it is a good many hundred feet
above our heads just now."

"See! see! what are those curious creatures which have just come out of
the water? Why, they have wings! Can they be birds?" she exclaimed.

"No; those are flying-fish," said Walter, who knew better than his
sister.

"And the frigate-bird has espied them too," exclaimed the mate. "Here
he comes."

As he spoke, a large bird came swooping down like a flash of lightning
from the heavens; and before the flying-fish, with their wings dried by
the air, had again fallen into the water, it had caught one of them in
its mouth. Swallowing the fish, the bird rapidly ascended, to be ready
for another pounce on its prey. The flying-fish had evidently other
enemies below the surface, for soon afterwards they were seen to rise at
a short distance ahead; and once more the bird, descending with the same
rapid flight as before, seized another, which it bore off.

"Poor fish! how cruel of the bird to eat them up," cried Alice.

"It is its way of getting its dinner," said the mate, laughing. "You
would not object to eat the fish were they placed before you nicely
fried at breakfast. Many seamen have been thankful enough to get them,
when their ship has gone down and they have been sailing in their boats
across the ocean, hard pressed by hunger."

"I was foolish to make the remark," said Alice; "and yet I cannot help
pitying the beautiful flying-fish, snapped up so suddenly. But how can
the bird come out here, so far away from land? Where can it rest at
night?"

"It can keep on the wing for days and days together," answered the mate.
"It is enabled to do this by having the muscles of its breast, which
work the wings, of wonderful strength, while the rest of the body is
exceedingly light. Its feet are so formed that it cannot rest on the
surface of the water as do most other sea-birds; which proves what I say
about its powers of flying."

The bird which he was describing was of a rich black plumage, the throa