

THE WHITE, OR GREAT PELICAN. 



THE WHITE, OR GKEAT PELICAN. 



This Pelican, when full grown, is larger than a Swan. The bill is 

 about sixteen inches long, and the skin between the sides of the lower 

 mandible is very dilatable. This skin is bare, and is capable of con- 

 taining many quarts of water. The tongue is so small as scarcely to 



be distinguishable. 

 The sides of the head 

 are naked, and on 

 the back of the head 

 there is a kind of 

 crest. The whole 

 plumage is whitish, 

 suffused with a pale 

 blush color, except 

 some parts of the 

 wings, which are 

 black. The legs are 

 lead-colored, and the 

 claws grey. 



The bag in the 

 lower mandible of 

 the bill of this biid 

 is one of the ir.ot 

 remarkable ni c ni - 

 I ers that is found in 

 ihe structure of any 

 animal. Though 

 the sides to which 

 it is attached, 

 are not above 

 an inch asunder, it may be extended to an amazing capacity; and 

 when the bird has tished with success, its size is almost incredible. 

 It will contain a man's head with the greatest ease ; and, it has been 

 said, that even a man's leg, with a boot on, has been hidden in one 

 of these pouches. In fishing, the Pelican fills this bag, and does not 

 immeJiately a-^vallow his prey; but when the bag is full, he returns 

 to the shore to devour at leisure the fruits of his industry. lie is not 

 long in digesting his food; for he has generally to fish more than 

 once in the course of a day. 



At night, when the toils of the day are over, these birds, whicb 

 Are lazy and indolent when they have glutted themselves with fish, 

 retire a little way on the shore to take their rest for the night, Tiieir 

 attituds in that state is with their head resting against the brea.^^t. 

 They remain almost motionless till hunger calls them to break olT 

 their repose: thus they pass nearly the whole of their life in eating 

 and sleeping. When thus incited to exertion, tliey fly from the spot, 

 and, raising themselves thirty or forty feet above the surface of the 

 sea, turn their head with one eye downward, and continue to fly iu 

 that position till they see a fish sufficiently near the surface. They 



raiOAKB. 



