Frigate

originally a Mediterranean ve el propelled by sails and oars; afterward a ship of war, between a sloop or brig and a ship of the line. Such ve els generally carried from 30 to 50 guns on the main deck and on A raised quarter desk and forecastle. They were usually employed as cruisers or scouts. The name is now no longer used, since the applicatior of steam to war-ve els removed thi 28 to 44 gun frigate type, with it: covered gun and upper flush decks Frigate Bird, a genus of natator. ial birds. They have a long and forkec tail, and an expansion of wings some: times reaching 10 or 12 feet. They abound on both the Atlantic and Pa. cific coasts of tropical America. They are called also man-of-war birds. = FRIEZE, E Frigid Zones, the two cold zones or imaginary belts encircling the world. The northern has the North Pole for its center and the Arctic Gircle for its circumference. Similarly the southern has the South Pole for its center, and the Antarctic circle for its circumference. Within these limits there is but one day and one | night in the year, each nominally six 'months in duration, but the day is really considerably longer than the normal amount, owing to the influence of refraction in keeping the sun above the horizon. The intense cold of winter covers every land within the limits with glaciers and congeals immense expanses of every sea. The heat et summer, on the contrary, is much above what might be expected, for, Ve 1ECONY though the solar beams are very oblique, yet, continuing for half a year without intervals of night, they produce great effects. It is a geological problem how plants, now found fo il in the polar latitudes, managed to pa undestroyed through the long winter. The frigid is called also the frozen zone. Fringillide; a family of pa erine birds of which the finch and sparrow are familiar species. The Arkansas finch of the Southern Rocky Mountains to the coast of California, is 4% inches long; the wing, 2 2-3 inches; the upper parts olive-green, the head, wings, and tail black; beneath, bright yellow. The common sparrow, the true type of the finch tribe, is a European bird, one of the most omnivorous of all birds, and has been lately succe fully introduced into this country. It is nearly six inches in length, of a robust form; bill dusky; eyes hazel; the top of the head and back part of the neck ash gray; the throat, fore part of the neck, and Space around the eyes black; the cheeks whitish; the breast and all the under parts pale ash; the back, scapulars, and wing coverts are reddish brown, mixed with black the latter tipped with white, forming a light bar acro the wing; tail brown, edged with gray, and rather forked; legs - pale brown. The plumage of the female is plainer and duller than that of the male; beyond each eye there is a line of white, and she has no black a on the throat. Sparrows -are old and crafty; and their partiality to the homes of man does not originate from any social affection on their part, but because their chief subsistence is most abundantly found there.