considered as the Pelican of the Moderns* 14?1 



raises itself above the surface of the sea, and then flies along, 

 with one eye towards the water, till it sees a fish near the sur- 

 face. Instantly it darts down upon it with astonishing swift- 

 ness, " seizes upon it with unerring certainty, and stores it up 

 in its pouch." It rises again as before, and repeats the 

 same manoeuvres, till it has got a sufficient quantity. It 

 now retires to the shore, and at leisure devours the fruits of 

 its industry. As it digests quickly, it has generally to fish 

 more than once in the course of the day. At night it rests a 

 little way from the shore, its head being supported by its breast. 

 In this posture it remains, till hunger prompts it to break its 

 repose. 



Thus it passes its life in a kind of dozing indolence when 

 not fishing. Nothing but the call of hunger can rouse it into 

 action : and as from its size it mounts into the air with diffi- 

 culty, it would never make the attempt but for the removal of 

 its hunger. 



Altogether the pelican is very stupid. When sitting on its 

 eggs, it suffers them to be taken from under it without making 

 opposition. At least it manifests no other concern than merely 

 pecking the person that removes them. 



To the kath being the pelican, in Psal. cii. 7., Shaw objects 

 that it is described as a bird of the wilderness, and that being 

 a water fowl, it would starve in a wilderness in which fish was 

 not to be found. To this objection it may be answered, that 

 what are called wildernesses, in Asiatic and African coun- 

 tries, are destitute neither of rivers nor lakes. Ptolemy 

 places three lakes in Marmarica, which is an extremely desert 

 region ; and the Israelites, when marching through the deserts 

 of Arabia, met with the waters of Marah, and the fountains 

 of Elim. 



It, indeed, may be laid down as an established fact, that 

 however desert any region may be, if it have mountains, it 

 will have lakes and rivers. To this purpose may be quoted a 

 very pertinent passage from Jerome, noticed by Martinius and 

 Merrick, in which the pelican is said to live " in solitudine 

 Nili fluminis," in the solitude of the river Nile ; and as this river 

 winds through desolate tracts the prophet Amos is perfectly 

 justified in calling it " the river of the wilderness." 



It may be remarked that Damir, quoted by Bochart, asserts 

 that the onocrotalus does not always remain in the water, but 

 often flies far from it, and might not its monstrous pouch be 

 given for this among other purposes, that neither itself nor its 

 young ones might want food, when it was at a distance from 

 the water? 



L 3 



