ORNITHOLOGY. 299 



PELICAN. 



This princely water-bird is no where abundant in these 

 Provinces, yet it is seen netting fish with its capacious 

 pouch in our solitary lowland streams and ponds. It is a 

 fine swimmer, and the natives say it wheels high over the 

 waters, then makes a sudden graceful sweep upon the 

 shoals offish beneath, which it skims up in great abun- 

 dance. 



Pelecanus rufcscens ? 



SNAKE-BIRD. 



On some of our inland streams the darter is common. 

 This bird resembles the cormorant, but has a much longer 

 neck, which it lifts above the water when swimming, while 

 its body is immersed, with a snake-like motion. 

 Plotus Vaillantii. 



<x8c4o oojISi. c8£cbi« 



CORMORANT. 



The cormorant, that ominous bird so dreaded by the 

 Druids, has one representative on this Coast, which may 

 be often seen fishing on the banks of fresh-water streams 

 and ponds. Wordsworth, alluding to the sea-mew scream- 

 ing around the arch Druid's brow, adds : 



" And toward the mystic ring 

 Where augurs stood, the future questioning. 

 Slowly the cormorant aims her heavy flight, 

 Portending ruin to each baleful rite." 



This bird is a noble fisher, and trained to that business 

 in Holland and China. In Arracan it has the same name 

 as the darter, but I have never heard that name applied 

 to it in these Provinces. 



Phalacrocorax Javanicus ? 

 Gcooccp" (oo6c^a Arracan.) 3q910o8.f. cB^cS^n 



SEA-SWALLOW. 



A species of tern, or sea-swallow, as these birds are 

 called in England, is often seen on the coast. 

 Sterna poliocerca, Gould. 



Thalascus cristatus, ? Stevens. 



(§Secg$« 



