474 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



to flight, particularly when the pouch is loaded with fish. 

 Though they can probably perch on trees, which I have never 

 seen them attempt, they are generally on the wing, on the 

 ground, or in their favorite element. 



In the old continent, the Pelican is said to nest on the 

 ground in an excavation near to the water, laying 2 or 3, 

 and rarely 4 eggs, which are pure white, and of nearly 

 equal thickness at both ends. Their nesting in deserts re- 

 mote from water, and the story of the parents bringing 

 water for their young in the pouch, in such quantities as to 

 afford drink for camels and wild beasts, appears only one of 

 those extravagant fictions, or tales of travellers invented to 

 gratify the love of the marvellous. Yet so general is the 

 belief in the truth of this improbable relation that the Egyp- 

 tians style it the Camel of the river, and the Persians, Ta- 

 cab, or the Water-Carrier. The pouch of the Pelican is 

 however very capacious, and besides drowning all attempts 

 at distinct voice, it gives a most uncouth, unwieldy, and 

 grotesque figure to the bird with which it is associated. 

 The French very justly nickname them Grand-gosiers, or 

 Great-throats; and as this monstrous enlargement of the 

 gullet is capable of holding a dozen quarts of water, an 

 idea may be formed of the quantity of fish it can scoop, 

 when let loose among a shoal of pilchards or other fish, 

 which they pursue in the course of their migrations. 



The Pelican appears to attain to a great age. According 

 to Culmann, in Gesner, a tame one in possession of the em- 

 peror Maximillian, which is said to have followed him with 

 the army, lived to the age of fourscore. 



It is remarkable, that while the Pelican of the Atlantic 

 and the Pacific, habitually frequents the ocean, that which 

 so generally inhabits North America, is rarely seen on the 

 sea coast, and then only as a straggler, seeking, even at 

 such times, the protection of bays and rivers. Its habits 



