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The magnificent frigatebird (''Fregata magnificens'') is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae. With a length of it is the largest species of frigatebird. It occurs over tropical and subtropical waters off America, between northern Mexico and Ecuador on the Pacific coast and between Florida and southern Brazil along the Atlantic coast. There are also populations on the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific and the Cape Verde islands in the Atlantic. The magnificent frigatebird is a large, lightly built seabird with brownish-black plumage, long narrow wings and a deeply forked tail. The male has a striking red gular sac which it inflates to attract a mate. The female is slightly larger than the male and has a white breast and belly. Frigatebirds feed on fish taken in flight from the ocean's surface (often flying fish), and sometimes indulge in kleptoparasitism, harassing other birds to force them to regurgitate their food. ==History and etymology== Christopher Columbus encountered magnificent frigatebirds when passing the Cape Verde Islands on his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492. His journal for the voyage survives in a version made in the 1530s by Bartholomé de las Casas. The entry for 29 September reads in English: They saw a bird that is called a frigatebird, which makes the boobies throw up what they eat in order to eat it herself, and she does not sustain herself on anything else. It is a seabird, but does not alight on the sea nor depart from land 20 leagues. There are many of these on the islands of Cape Verde. In the 15th century text the name of the bird is written as ''rabiforçado''. The modern Spanish word for a frigatebird is ''rabihorcado'' or "forked tail".〔〔 A population of magnificent frigatebirds once bred on the Cape Verde Islands but is now probably extinct. The word ''frigatebird'' derives from the French mariners' name for the bird ''La Frégate'' - a frigate or fast warship. The etymology of the name was given by French naturalist Jean-Baptiste du Tertre when describing the magnificent frigatebird in 1667. English mariners referred to frigatebirds as Man-of-War birds. This name was used by the English explorer William Dampier in his book ''An Account of a New Voyage Around the World'' published in 1697: The Man-of-War (as it is called by the English) is about the bigness of a Kite, and in shape like it, but black; and the neck is red. It lives on Fish yet never lights on the water, but soars aloft like a Kite, and when it sees its prey, it flys down head foremost to the Waters edge, very swiftly takes its prey out of the Sea with his Bill, and immediately mounts again as swiftly; never touching the Water with his Bill. His Wings are very long; his feet are like other Land-fowl, and he builds on Trees, where he finds any; but where they are wanting on the ground.〔 The modern name ''Frigate Bird'' was used in 1738 by the English naturalist and illustrator Eleazar Albin in his ''A Natural History of the Birds''. The book included an illustration of the male bird showing the red gular pouch. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Magnificent frigatebird」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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