264 FISHING BY PELICAN AND CORMORANT. 



Be it your fortune, year by year. 



The same resource to prove ; 

 And may ye, sometimes landing here. 



Instruct us how to love ! 



The accommodation of these poor birds to necessity 

 is a striking example of deviation from instinct, under 

 particular circumstances. I will now relate a cu- 

 rious instance of pm'e instinct, in which two birds 

 act in concert, and seem necessary to each other, 

 which Mr. Hervey has observed in very distant 

 parts of the world. When he was in Russia, he 

 obtained a curious account of the pelican's mode of 

 fishing, with the assistance of the cormorant. The 

 pelican extends its wings, and troubles the water, 

 while the cormorant, diving to the bottom, drives 

 the fish to the surface; and the pelican, continu- 

 ing the motion of its wings advances towards 

 the shore, where the fish are taken among the 

 shallows : afterwards, the cormorant, without fur- 

 ther ceremony, helps himself out of the pelican's 

 beak.* 



To this surprising intelligence between these two 

 birds he easily gave credit, because he had ob- 

 served something very similar in the West Indies be- 

 tween the sea-pelican and a small sea-gull. As he 

 was sailing near the island of Tortola, he repeat- 



* Clark's Travels in Russia, &c. 



