THE PELICAN. . 271 
of wing, and are excellent swimmers ; their haunts are estuaries, the 
sea-coast, and the banks of rivers, lakes, and marshes. In its habitat, 
whenever a fish betrays its presence by leaping or flashing its glittering 
scales in the sun, the Pelican will be seen sailing towards Jt. 
This bird has an appetite so insatiable and a stomach so capa- 
cious that in one day it devours as much food as would satisfy six 
men. The Egyptians have nicknamed it the River Camel, because 
it can imbibe at once more than twenty pints of water. Certainly 
it only makes two meals a day ; but, oh, what meals they are ! 
Pelicans often travel in considerable flocks, visiting the mouths of 
rivers or favourite retreats on the sea-coast. When they have made 
choice of a suitable fishing-place, they arrange themselves in a wide 
circle, and begin to beat the water with extended wing, so as to drive 
the fish before them, gradually diminishing the circle as they ap- 
proach the shore or some inlet on the coast. In this manner they 
get all the fish together into a small space, when the common feast 
begins. After gorging themselves, they retire to the shore, where the 
process of digestion follows. Some rest with the neck over the 
back ; others busily dress and smoothe their plumage, waiting pa- 
tiently until returning appetite invites them to fresh exertions. When 
thus quiescent, occasionally one of these birds empties his well-lined 
pouch, and spreads in front of him all the fish that it contains, in 
order to feed upon them at leisure. This pouch, which plays so 
important a part in the Pelican’s life, is composed of two skins, the 
outer one being a prolongation of the skin of the neck ; the inner 
one is contiguous to the coating of the cesophagus. 
In spite ‘of its great size, the Pelican flies easily and to consider- 
able distances. It is no diver, but will occasionally dash down on 
fish from a considerable height, and with such velocity that it becomes 
submerged ; but its buoyancy instantly brings it again to the surface. 
It perches on trees, but seems to prefer rocks. Its nest is generally 
formed of coarse reedy grass, lined with softer material, and placed 
in the clefts of dry rocks near the water. Here the female deposits 
two, three, four, sometimes five, white eggs, but most frequently only 
two. Occasionally they will lay in an indentation in the ground 
which they have previously roughly lined with blades of grass. 
After an incubation lasting from forty to forty-five days, the 
young ones, covered with a greyish down, are hatched. The female 
feeds them: she presses the hooked red point of the mandible against 
her breast, which causes her to disgorge the fish it contains into the 
pi of the young ones, the male performing the same operation on 
imself for the benefit of his partner. This is probably the fact that 
