AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 365 



The Pelican, the largest of web- footed water- fowl, known 

 from the earliest times, has long held a fabulous celebrity for 

 a maternal tenderness that went so far as to give nourishment 

 to its brood at the expense of its own blood. Its industry 

 and success as a fisher allows of a more natural and grateful 

 aliment for its young ; and pressing the well- stored pouch to 

 its breast, it regurgitates the contents before them, without 

 staining its immaculate robe with a wound. 



If, indeed, authors do not include more than a single species 

 in the P. ofiocrotaius, no bird wanders so widely or inhabits 

 such a diversity of climates as the Common Pelican. In the 

 cooler parts of Europe it is, however, seldom seen, being ob- 

 served in France, England, and Switzerland only as a very 

 rare straggler. It is likewise uncommon in the north of Ger- 

 many, though great numbers occur on the banks of the Danube. 

 This resort and that of the Strymon, also famous for its Swans, 

 are noticed by Aristotle. The Pelican is found in Red Russia, 

 Lithuania, Volhinia, Podolia, and Pokutia, but is unknown in the 

 northern parts of the Muscovian empire, being seldom met with 

 as far as the Siberian lakes, yet it is observed about Lake Baikal. 

 The lakes of Judaea and of Egypt, the banks of the Nile in win- 

 ter, and those of the Strymon in summer, seen from the heights, 

 appear whitened by flocks of Pelicans. They are likewise com- 

 mon in Africa, on the Senegal and the Gambia, as well as at 

 Loanga, and on the coasts of Angola, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. 

 They occur at Madagascar, at Siam, in China, on the isle of 

 Sunda, and at the Philippines, especially in the fisheries of the 

 great lake of Manilla. They are sometimes met with at sea, 

 and have been seen in the remote islands of the Indian Ocean. 

 Captain Cook observed them likewise in New Holland. 



In America Pelicans are found in the North Pacific, on the 

 coast of California and New Albion, and from the Antilles 

 and Terra Firma, the isthmus of Panama and the bay of Cam- 

 peachy, as far as Louisiana and Missouri. They are very 

 rarely seen along the coast of the Atlantic, but stragglers have 

 been killed in the Delaware, and they are known to breed in 

 Florida. In all the fur countries they are met with up to the 



