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CHAPTER XVITT. 



Pinnipedes, Swimming-feet. Pelican. Fable of Drawing its P>lood 

 explained. Mode of Fishing. Sea-birds feeding on Fish thrown up by 

 Whales. Cormorants. Voracity of. May be tamed. Fierceness of. 

 Frigate-bird. Solan Goose. Lightness and Buoyancy of. Nests. 

 Anhingas, or Darters. 



TABLE XXVIII. (See page 22.) 

 ORDER 6. PALMIPEDES. TRIBE 2. PINNIPEDES (Swimming- feet). 



THE birds of this Table are, like the preceding, web-footed, 

 but they differ from them in having the back-toe so united 



with the others as to form one 

 continuous web, having, in 

 some instances, a toothed claw 

 on the second toe ; and what 

 is very singular, notwithstand- 

 ing this peculiarity, which it 

 might be supposed, while it 



Toothed Claw of Cormorant's Foot. -, j , -, ,-. , 



rendered them more fit for 



swimming, would entirely prevent their clinging to a branch, 

 almost all of them can and do frequently perch on trees. 



The Pelican stands at the head of this list, easily distin- 

 guished from all others by his capacious pouch, formed of a 

 naked skin, stretched, or rather suspended from the two 

 bony branches of his lower mandible. We have already 

 given his picture, in speaking of the pouches peculiar to some 

 birds. 



Few birds have had more marvellous stories told of them 

 than the Pelican, and most of them founded upon some 

 peculiarity, exaggerated by the ignorant. Thus, the old 

 tradition of its drawing blood from its breast to feed its young 

 ones, or as some ancient authors gravely asserted, to bring 

 them to life again after serpents had squirted venom into 



