THE BROWN PELICAN. 275 
made on the ground, and is about eighteen inches in diameter, in 
which it lays four, sometimes five, white eggs, but more frequently 
two, slightly oblong, and alike at both ends. Fish forms its principal 
food, which it captures chiefly in shallow inlets, as it is an indifferent 
diver. Occasionally its flight is lofty, but generally close to the 
surface of the water. 
THE Brown PE ican (2. fuscus). 
The Brown Pelican is an American species, smaller than the pre- 
ceding, and is described at some length by Nuttall. It has the head 
and the neck variegated with white and ash-colour ; all the rest of the 
plumage of a brownish grey, with whitish marks on the back; the 
pouch is of an ashy blue, striped with a reddish hue. It is found in 
the Larger Antilles, on the coasts of Peru, Florida, and South Carolina. 
Although ponderous and heavy-looking on the wing, this species 
is capable of performing flights of immense distance, and to a 
certain extent may be considered migratory. In winter they are 
seldom seen beyond the edge of the tropics, but in summer they are 
frequently found as far north as the thirty-sixth degree of latitude. 
Extremely wary and difficult of approach, they are seldom shot, 
although persistently pursued by fishermen, on account of the 
immense damage they do to the spawn and young of fish. They 
are also possessed of the greatest powers of vitality, and resist death 
when pierced with wounds so serious that it would inevitably kill any 
other species. From this circumstance doubtless they receive the 
name of Die-hards from the residents that dwell on the margin of the 
Gulf of Mexico. When disabled from taking flight, their courage in 
defending themselves from an assailant is as remarkable as that of 
the Bittern ; but being possessed of superior size and strength to the 
latter bird, the Brown Pelican can successfully resist the strongest 
dog. Like the other species of this genus they live in small com- 
munities of twenty or thirty members, and build their nests upon 
the ground closely adjoining each other, and the utmost good fellow- 
ship, almost affection for each other, exists between the members of 
the diminutive coteries. ‘The young birds remain with their parents 
till the spring following their birth, the old ones driving them off to 
seek new domiciles, when the advance of the season tells them that 
they must provide a home for a coming family. As in many other 
races, the plumage of the young is much darker and less handsomely 
marked than in the adults. From frequent persecution, the Brown 
Pelican has of late years much diminished in numbers. 
