of a large Pelican in the English Fens. 365 



Pelican it is otherwise ; for this bird does not belong to the fauna 

 of the British Islands. 



The genus Pelicanus counts several species, which for the most 

 part inhabit the warm regions of the globe. Pelicanus rufescens, 

 Gmel., is a native of Africa, where it is met with from the Gulf 

 of Guinea to the Mozambique Channel; P. philippensis, Gmel., 

 inhabits the southern parts of Asia and the Philippine Islands ; 

 P. trachyrhynchus, Lath., is found in South America, as is also 

 P.fuscus and P. fhagus; P. conspicillatus, Temni., is an Aus- 

 tralian species. This genus in Europe is only represented by 

 two specific forms — P. crispus, Bruch, which is met with on the 

 shores of the Black Sea and on the islands at the mouth of the 

 Danube, and P. onoa'otalus, Linn., which is common in the 

 southern and eastern countries of Europe. This last occurs in 

 large numbers on the lakes and watercourses of Hungary and 

 Russia, and is also seen further south in Asia and in Northern 

 Africa. If it occurs in France, it is only accidentally ; and only 

 two or three exceptional cases are recorded in which its presence 

 has been asserted in England. Thus Fleming, in his ' History 

 of British Animals,^ tells us that a Pelican was killed in 16G3 

 in Horsey Fen^, and that another of these birds, in brown 

 plumage, was seen by Dr. Leith in the month of May at Black- 

 heath, near London; and, finally, Mr. Alfred Newton has shown 

 me a note published by Mr. Tristram [Zool. 1856, p. 5321] in 

 which that author announces that the remains of a Pelican were 

 found on the shore at Castle Eden, in the county of Durham, 

 the 25th August, 1856. 



Pelicans, then, cannot figure in the list of birds proper to the 

 British Islands ; for the few individuals there met with have been 

 driven by the winds far from the countries which they commonly 

 inhabit. But one cannot explain in that manner the existence 



• [This statement, which rests on the authority of Sir Thomas Browne, 

 was, we believe, together with that which next follows it in the text, first 

 published by Latham (Synops. B. iii. p. 577) in 1785. Sir Thomas in- 

 quires whether the Horsey bird might not have been one of the King's 

 Pelicans, lost about that time from St. .James's Park. Montagu (Siippl. 

 Orn. Diet.) suggests that the bird seen by Dr. Leith may have been au 

 immature Swan. — Ed.] 



2 c 2 



