THE PELICAN. 293 



This guttural 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 oesophagus. The tongue is small : a delicate 

 gizzard forms one large sac with the other stomachs. 



In spite of its great size, the Pelican flies easily and to con- 

 siderable 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 to the surface again. It perches on trees, but seems to prefer 

 rocks. When it builds a nest, it is generally formed of coarse 

 reedy grass, lined with softer material, placed in the cleft of dry 

 rocks near the water. Here the female deposits two, three, four, 

 sometimes five white eggs, but most frequently only two. They 

 are occasionally satisfied with placing their eggs in an indentation 

 in the ground which they have 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 bills of the young ones, the male performing the same opera- 

 tion on himself for the benefit of his partner. This is probably 

 the fact that has given origin to the absurd fable that the female 

 Pelican is in the habit of piercing her breast in order to nourish 

 her young with her maternal blood. The young birds are easily 

 tamed. It is even asserted that they are susceptible of education, 

 and that, like the young Cormorants, they can be taught to fish 

 for their masters. 



The Pelican is more common in tropical regions than in tem- 

 perate climates. They are very numerous in Africa, Siam, Mada- 

 gascar, the Sunda Isles, the Philippines, Manilla, and in the 

 Western Hemisphere they abound from the Antilles to the 

 northern temperate part of the South American continent. The 

 true Pelicans are large birds with powerful wings, and are 

 excellent swimmers. The pouch has extraordinary elasticity, and 

 is capable of containing a number of fish either for its own con- 

 sumption or the nourishment of its young. It haunts the 



