242 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



very large, and the bones in them very light, so that they can receive a great 

 quantity of air, and the bird can soar very high in the air and keep a long 

 time on the wing. The colour of the plumage is a yellowish white, and the 

 pouch is of a straw colour. On the greater part of the head and neck the 

 plumage is like a short close down, gradually passing into feathers ; and there 

 is a tuft on the back of the head that falls downwards over the neck. 



But the pouch is the most curious part of the pelican. In the first place, 

 the bill itself is, as you see, of an enormous length, and, if it were opened 

 wide, a man could put his head into the bird's mouth. It is very thick in the 

 middle, and tapers off towards the end with a little hook. From the under 

 part of the bill hangs a bag that reaches its whole length, from the tip to the 

 neck. When it is empty, the bird can wrinkle it up and make it go into very 

 little room. The skin of which the bag is formed is covered with a downy 

 substance as soft as satin. It is very elastic, and though it does not show 

 when it is empty, it can be stretched out to almost any amount. When the 

 pelican goes out fishing, the first thing he does is to fill his bag, and when he 

 has done that he goes home again. He can bring as much fish home as would 

 serve sixty hungry men for a meal ! 



Though the pelican is a swimming bird, he does not venture into the 

 open sea. He lives in flocks along the sea coasts, and on the borders of lakes. 

 He is by nature of an indolent disposition, and docs not like much trouble. 

 But hunger rouses him up from the dozing state in which he is often found, 

 and drives him to the water-side. 



When night comes, the pelicans, in spite of their webbed feet, arc resolved 

 to perch on trees to roost. They take their repose among the lighter and 

 gayer inhabitants of the forest, and sit in a curious attitude, with the head 

 resting on the bag, and the bag upon the breast. There they remain without 

 changing their position, until hunger again rouses them, and they go out to 

 seek for prey. 



The mother pelican does not take much trouble about her nest, but drops 

 her eggs on the bare ground, and hatches them there. She feeds her young 

 with the fish in her bag that has been there some time, and is soft and tender. 



A traveller once took two young pelicans and tied them by the leg to 

 a post stuck in the ground. Here he had the pleasure of seeing the old birds 

 come every day to feed them ; and when night came they roosted on a tree that 

 hung overhead. Indeed, both the old and young birds became so tame that 



