Frieze

frez, in architecture, that part of an entablature that is between the architrave and the cornice. The frieze may be a flat surface or it may be divided by partitions into panels. The Greek frieze in its severest form was plain, but ordinarily the frieze was ornamented with figures in relief. A frieze of the Athenian Parthenon, two-thirds of which is preserved in the British Museum, was 524 feet in length. It was originally forty feet from the ground. It is adorned by a sacrificial procession in low relief. From its use in architecture the term has been adapted by potters and silversmiths to denote an ornamental band on vases and cups, especially if used as a ground for figures. Decorators apply the name to an ornamental border running around the wall of a room near the ceiling.

Frigate (frig'at) Bird, a web-footed bird of the pelican family. It has a small, slender body with long, pointed wings and a deeply forked tail. The plumage is black glossed with green. The bill is longer that the rest of the head, and is sharply hooked at the end. The total length is forty inches; the extent of wing, seven feet. The frigate bird inhabits the coasts of intertropical seas. It nests on stony cliffs or sometimes builds a platform of twigs in trees. The nest contains but a single, chalky white egg. The bird ashore is awkward. Its legs are so short as to seem deformed. It is a swift, graceful, straight flyer, extending its search for food sometimes to a distance of 1,000 miles from land. It is seldom known to dive, but snatches its prey from the surface of the sea or catches flying fishes in their flight. In some localities the frigate bird leads a life near the shore and obtains its food by forcing the gannets and terns to give up the fish they have brought from distant fishing grounds. In case of reluctance to give up their hard won earnings, the active pirate uses beak and wing in a lively manner to over-persuade the "honest fisher folk." Other names for the frigate bird are the man-of-war bird and the man-of-war hawk. See Cormorant; Pelican