2IO ALI,EN S NATURAT,TSTS LIBRARY. 



Nest. — The present species does not build a nest of its own, 

 but adapts the old nest of a Crow or Rook to its wants. 



Eggs — The British Museum possesses so few eggs of this 

 species that I am not able to describe them at length. They 

 appear to resemble some of the eggs of the Common Kestrel 

 so closely, as to be practically inseparable. According to Mr. 

 Goebel, who has taken numbers of the eggs of C. vesper ii?ia in 

 Southern Russia, they are not so coarsely grained as those of 

 the Common Kestrel, have much less lustre, and are, on an 

 average, smaller, and not only absolutely, but proportionately 

 lighter. The colour of our Kestrels' eggs is a darker, browner 

 red compared with the yellower red of C. vespertina. Axis, 

 i-25-1'6 inch ; diam., i"o-i*2. 



THE PELICAN-LIKE BIRDS. 



ORDER PELECANIFORMES. 



Tropic Birds {Phaetoiitcs), Frigate Birds {Fregati), Pelicans, 

 Cormorants, and Gannets — these are the groups of birds 

 which constitute the large order Felecaniformes. These birds 

 have also been united together under the heading of Sfega?io- 

 podeSy all of them having the hallux, or hind-toe, united to the 

 second by a vv^eb, so that, in fact, all four toes are connected by 

 a membrane. 



THE PELICANS. SUB-ORDER PELECANI. 



The members of this Sub-order are easily recognised by 

 their peculiar bills and large gular pouches, which are capable 

 of distension to an enormous extent. A Pelican is a tropical 

 bird and seldom wanders far north, though recently some of 

 these birds are said to have been noticed in West Jutland. The 

 White Pelican {^P. onocrotahis) used at one time to inhabit 

 England, as its bones have been found in the fens of Norfolk, and 

 Montagu mentions the shooting of a Pelican at Horsey Fen 

 in 1663, but this was believed to have been one of the King's 

 birds escaped from St. James' Park. The species can, there- 

 fore, scarcely be said to require notice in the present Work, 

 and, indeed, Mr. Howard Saunders does not even mention 

 it in his "Manual."' 



