of the Pclecanus Aquilus of Linnccus. % 



the body in its long and arduous flights. From its situation it 

 is particularly adapted to aid the muscles of the neck IB sup- 

 porting the head, which, from the weight of the beak and bones 

 of the cranium, and the length of the neck, are apparently in 

 want of some such relief. The only fact which interferes with 

 this opinion is the want of this sac in the female, in which it i>> 

 never found : if, therefore, it be given to the bird for the pur- 

 poses which have been mentioned, it is to be supposed that onI\ 

 the male makes these prodigious flights, and that the female 

 remains constantly near the land, to which the other returns 

 during the breeding season. 



In considering the structure of this bird, its most striking pe- 

 culiarity consists in the disproportion which exists between the 

 wings and the other extremities ; a disproportion so enormous, as 

 probably not to be found in any other, if we except the Ostrich 

 and Cassowary, where it is reversed. It may readily be con- 

 ceived that the habits of the bird render its immense expanse of 

 wing necessary, as it is frequently seen many hundred miles 

 from any resting-place ; but the posterior extremity is so dimi- 

 nutive, in comparison with the size and weight of the body, as 

 apparently to be nearly useless. It is totally inadequate to the 

 process of walking, as when on the ground the bird can be taken 

 by the hand without difficulty ; and the structure of the foot, the 

 toes of which are webbed only to their second joint, (which is 

 little more than what is found in land-birds,) together with some 

 other points in its anatomy, prove that it never rests on the 

 water, and is deficient in the great peculiarity of all water-birds, 

 the power of swimming. But as this is perhaps the only one of 

 all the sea-birds which is deprived of that power, it may be proper 

 to examine into the fact before it is assumed. 



In the first place, when seizing the food which was thrown to 



b 2 them 



