618 - THE FEATIiERKD TRIBES. 



like swans, above Lis head, ratlier low ; and adds, that they are seen flying- in a large 

 flock, like those birds. 



Hasselquist saw the pelican at Daniietta, in Egypt. Tie states, that it comes to that 

 countr}' in the middle of September. " In flj'iug," he says, " these birds form an acute 

 angle, like the common wild geese, when they migrate. In summer they inhabit the 

 Black Sea and coasts of Greece ; and in their migrations remain for a kw daj's over 

 Smyrna and other parts of the coast of Natolia, but never stray far from the continent. 

 Some of them remain at Damietta, and in the islands of the Delta, iu the Mediterranean, 

 but the greater part go to Egypt." 



" Pelicans," saj^s Dr. Richardson, " are numerous in the interior of the fur countries 

 up to the sixty-first parallel ; but they seldom come within two hundred miles of 

 Hudson's Bay. They deposit their eggs usually in small rocky islands, on tlie brink of 

 cascades, where they can scarcely be approached ; but they are otherwise by no mcariS 

 shy birds. 



" They fl}^ low and heavily, usually in flocks from six to fourteen, sometimes abreast, 

 at other times in an oblique line ; and they often pass close over a building, or within a 

 few j'ards of a party of men, without exhibiting any signs of fear. The_y haunt eddies 

 lander waterfalls, and devour great quantities of carp and other fish. Though they can 

 perch on trees, they are most generally seen either on the wing or swimming. Some 

 species, apparently in mature plumage, have the bill quite smooth above ; but individuals 

 have a long, thin, bony process, about two inches high, springing from the ridge of the 

 upper mandible. Similar processes existed in the specimens commented on by Pennant 

 and Forster, which were brought from Hudson's Bay ; but no such appearances have 

 been described as occurring on the bills of the white pelicans of the Old Continent." 



Adanson, in his " Voyage to Senegal," relates, that in the river Niger, iu the way to 

 the island Griel, he saw a great number of pelicans, or wide throats. They moved with 

 great state, like swans, upon the water, and are the largest birds next to the ostriches. 

 The bill of one he killed was upwards of a foot and a half long, and the bag fastened 

 underneath it held twenty-two pints of water. They swim in flocks, and form a large 

 circle, which they contract afterwards, dri\'ing the fish before them with their legs. 

 When they have collected a sufficient quantity of fish within this space, they plunge 

 their bill wide open into the water, and shut it again with great quickness ; laj'ing up 

 by this means a stoi'e of fish in their cajsacious bag, till they have an opportunity of 

 eating it on shore. 



Fish is the food of the pelican, which it captures generally in shallow inlets with 

 great adroitness. It is no diver, but occasionally it dashes from a great height on the 

 wing, and that with such velocity that the fish becomes submerged, though its buoyancy 

 instantlj' brings it again to the surface. 



Mr. Hervcy, when in liussia, obtained a curious account of the pelican's mode of 

 fishing, with the assistance of the cormorant. The pelican extends its wings, and 

 troubles tlic water, while the cormorant, diving to the bottom, drives the fish to tlio 

 surface ; and the pelican, continuing the motion of its wings, advances towards the shore, 

 whore the fish are taken among the shallows : afterwards, the cormorant, without 

 furtluT ceremony, helps himself out of the pelican's beak. 



Although the pelican jJcrchcs on trees, it seems to prefer rocky shores. The nest, 

 generally formed of coarse, reedy grass, with a lining of grass of a softer quality, is about 

 !i foot and a half in diameter, and is made on the grinuid. F'rom two to i'lw pure white 

 eggs, but generally two, nearly tlin same in size at botli ends, are laid in it. 



Sonnerat found five under a female of this genus. She would not lise lo let liim pass, 

 but kept her seat; she struck at him with her bill, and screamed when lie attempted to 

 di-ive her from her eggs. 



