372 BIRDS OF DA3IARA LAND. 



Where not previously disturbed the Pelican is not of 

 a particularly shy nature; but at Walwich Bay it has 

 now become nearly impossible for the European to 

 approach it, even within rifle-shot. It, however, shows 

 little or no fear of the natives ; and it is no unusual thing 

 to see Pelicans watching the natives at a short distance 

 whilst they are spearing fish in the shallows, and even 

 anticipating them in the capture and thus cheating them 

 of their quarry. 



From January to May, Walwich Bay is very bare of 

 these as well as of other birds, as they then resort to the 

 interior for the purpose of incubation. At Lake Ngami 

 the Pelican makes its nest among the bushes, and deposits 

 a single white egg of a beautiful oval shape. 



[I have not had an opi^ortiinity of examining a Pelican from 

 South-western Africa ; but Mr. Andersson, though he described 

 the species found in Damara Land under the name of P. onocro- 

 talus, seems from his ]\IS. notes to have considered it identical 

 with tliat found at the Cape, which, according to Mr. Elliot 

 {loc. cit.), appears to be referable to the smaller species P. minor, 

 to which it is therefore most probable that Mr. Andersson's ob- 

 servations also refer. 



Mr. Chapman, in his ' Travels in South Africa,' vol. i. p. 346, 

 speaking of the Pelicans observed by him at Walwich Bay, 

 remarks that they " pursue their prey nightly in the shallow 

 lagoons, driving the fish, by flapping their wings on the water, 

 near the shore, and catching them M'hile floundering.'' — Ed.] 



