2050 THE CORMORANT GROUP 



occur commonly in the Miocene deposits of Europe, and also in the Pliocene of 

 Northern India. 



Pelicans commonly occur in enormous flocks in the neighborhood of 

 swamps, estuaries, and rivers, and are sometimes so numerous that 

 in India Mr. Hume speaks of having seen miles of them. Their food is mainly fish, 

 of which they consume immense quantities, but crawfish have been taken from the 

 stomach of the American species. In fishing they generally select water of suffi- 

 cient depth to swim in, but which is not too deep to prevent them touching the bot- 

 tom when swimming with their heads beneath the surface. In this posture a flock 

 will frequently form a line or horseshoe, each bird stationed about a yard from its 

 neighbor, and will fish the water in a most regular and systematic manner from 

 bank to bank. On reaching the opposite bank, the birds will either waddle on 

 shore to preen and dress their feathers, and afford time for the digestion of their 

 meal, or take flight to another piece of water. In general their periods of feeding 

 and repose are marked out with great regularity. The females attend to the feed- 

 ing of the young, this being effected by the old birds pressing their beak against 

 their breast and raising the upper mandible, upon which the young help themselves 

 to the fish in the pouch; and it is doubtless from this action that the fable of the 

 pelican feeding her offspring from the blood of her own breast took its origin. The 

 eggs, from two to three in number, have thick bluish-white shells, incrusted with 

 chalky matter; and it is not uncommon to find both eggs and half-fledged young in 

 the same nest. In India, at least, the male and female birds not unfrequently asso- 

 ciate in separate flocks. In spite of their bulk and clumsy form, pelicans display 

 extreme activity when on the wing, flying in lines with the neck bent back over the 

 body, and all who have seen flocks of these birds under such circumstances, 

 describe it as one of the most imposing and striking scenes that can be imagined. 



FRIGATE BIRDS 

 Family FREGA TID^E 



The two remaining families of the order each represented by a single genus 

 differ from all the foregoing in being completely pelagic in their habits. The 

 frigate, x or man-of-war birds, are characterized by their slender body; short and 

 thick neck; long and powerful hooked beak, of which both mandibles are deflected 

 at the end; the extremely- short legs, feathered down to the toes; their elongated 

 and sharply-pointed wings, and the deep, swallow-like forking of the long tail. 

 The feet differ from those of all other members of the order by the webs only ex- 

 tending a short distance up the long and sharply -clawed toes; and in the wings the 

 first quill is the longest, while the tail has twelve feathers. There is a tract devoid 

 of feathers around the eye and on the throat. The bones are more permeated by 

 air cavities than in any other bird, and there is a large dilatable air sac beneath the 

 throat. In the great frigate bird (Fregatus aquila}, which inhabits the warmer 



