THE PELICAN OF THE WILDERNESS 7 



neck by a native standing in the centre, while two 

 other men each held the outstretched wings at the tips. 

 The general colour of the plumage is white, suffused 

 slightly with a pale pink, and greyish upon tlie 

 wings. The quill-feathers are a very dark grey, which, 

 however, is only to be seen when the bird is in flight. 

 In mature specimens there is a touch of yellowish 

 gold upon the breast-feathers. The head is crested, 

 the face and neck are bare, and the pouch is of a 

 bright yellow colour. The soft flexible membrane of 

 the pouch we found, by the way, when cut from the 

 bill and dried and prepared by our men, to make, 

 with a little sewing, an excellent tobacco-pouch of 

 many ounce capacity. 



The pouch is very distensible, and when filled will 

 hold a number of good-sized fish. Livingstone, in 

 his Missionary Travels, has noted the method of 

 attack made by the river- eagle {Halixtus vocifcr) 

 upon a fishing-pelican. The eagle makes a swoop 

 at the pelican, which, in a state of dire alarm, opens 

 its bill to cry out *' Murder ! " The eagle then coolly 

 seizes a fish from the open pouch and flies off. I 

 never saw this incident, but it is well known to the 

 natives. The pelican, big though it is, is a defence- 

 less creature against the larger raptorial birds, and 

 is, I imagine, only formidable to the fishes. The 

 Pelecanus onocrotalus was the only species observed 

 by us on the Lake river; but another and smaller 



