PELEW ISLANDS PELICAN. 



453 



Peleus and Thetis, Achilles only reached the age of 

 manhood. Peleus educated him with Patroclus, who 

 had fled to him for safety, and reluctantly suffered 

 him to go to the siege of Troy. Thetis deserted him, 

 and he had the grief to survive his beloved son. 

 After his death he received divine honours, together 

 with Chiron, from the inhabitants of Pella, in Mace- 

 donia ; and Pindar mentions him as one of the judges 

 in the infernal regions. 



PELEW ISLANDS, or PALAOS ; a cluster of 

 islands in the western part of the Pacific ocean, situ- 

 ated between the Philippine and Caroline islands. They 

 are about eighteen in number. In the year 1783, cap- 

 tain Wilson, commander of the Antelope packet, in 

 the service of the East India company, was wrecked 

 on this coast. These islands were probably first 

 noticed by some of the Spaniards of the Philippines, 

 and by them named the Palaos Islands, from the tall 

 palm-trees which grow here in great abundance. 

 The inhabitants had been represented as inhuman 

 and savage, and feeding on human flesh: captain 

 Wilson, on the contrary, found them hospitable, 

 friendly, and humane. These islands are long, but 

 narrow, of a moderate height, well covered with 

 wood, at least such of the islands as captain Wil- 

 son's people had an opportunity of seeing. They 

 are bordered on the west side by a reef of coral. 

 The country produces some sugar-canes, and great 

 abundance of the bamboo; likewise the turmeric, 

 which the natives use as a dye, and with which the 

 women stain their skin. None of the islands which 

 the British visited had any kind of grain, nor any 

 quadruped whatever, except some brownish-gray rats 

 which ran wild in the woods, and three or four mea- 

 gre cats, which were seen in some houses at Pelew. 

 The islands, when viewed from the sea, exhibit high 

 rugged land, well covered with wood ; the interior 

 part is in many places mountainous, but the valleys 

 are extensive and beautiful, spreading before the 

 eye many delicious prospects. The soil is, in gen- 

 eral, rich. Lon. 134 40' E. ; lat. between 6 54 , 

 and 8 12' N. See Keate's Account of the Pelew 

 Islands, and Hochin's Supplement to the Account 

 (London, 1803). 



PELIAS ; in fabulous history, son of Neptune, 

 king of lolchos, in Thessaly, from the throne of 

 which he drove its lawful possessor, his brother 

 .iEson. He also removed his son Jason, but perished 

 on his return. According to tradition, his own 

 daughters, following the advice of the cnnning Me- 

 dea, who promised to renew his youth by her magi- 

 cal power, killed him, and boiled his dismembered 

 remains in a caldron : some say that Medea killed 

 him herself. His son and successor, Acastus, insti- 

 tuted splendid games in honour of the dead, in which 

 some of the most celebrated Argonauts bore off the 

 prizes. 



PELICAN (pelecanus, Lin.); bill long, straight, 

 broad, much depressed ; upper mandibles flattened, 

 terminated by a nail, or very strong hook, the lower 

 formed by two bony branches, which are depressed, 

 flexible, and united at the tip ; from these branches 

 is suspended a naked skin, in form of a pouch; face 

 and throat naked; nostrils basal, in the form of nar- 

 row longitudinal slits ; legs short and strong ; all the 

 four toes connected by a web ; wings of moderate 

 dimensions. The pelicans are large birds, which 

 reside on rivers, lakes, or along the sea-coasts. 

 Though excellent swimmers, they also occasionally 

 perch on trees. They are gregarious, very fond ol 

 fish, and when harassed or pursued, readily rejecl 

 the contents of their stomach, like the gull tribe. 

 They store up their prey in their gular pouch, from 

 which it is gradually transferred into the oesophagus 

 as the process of digestion goes on. Though re- 



markable for their voracity, some of the species have 

 jeen trained to fish in the service of man. In external 

 appearance the sexes very nearly resemble each 

 other. 



P. onocrotalus, Lin., &c.; white, or common peli- 

 can ; white, faintly tinged with flesh colour, gullet 

 with a bright yellow pouch. The spurious wings 

 and first quill feathers are black. The bag at the 

 throat is flaccid, membranous, and capable of great 

 distention. Length between five and six feet; extent 

 of wing eleven feet, being rather larger than the 

 swan, though with much shorter legs. The young 

 are distinguished by the prevalence of cinereous in 

 their plumage, and have been erroneously designated 

 P. Philippensis and P. fuscus, by Gmeliri and 

 Latham. This bird has its specific name from its cry, 

 which is loudest during flight, and which the ancients 

 compared to the braying of an ass ; inhabits Asia, 

 Africa, and South America. About the middle of 

 September, flocks of this species repair to Egypt, in 

 regular bands, terminating in an obtuse angle. Dur- 

 ing the summer months, they take up their abode on 

 the borders of the Black sea and the shores of Greece. 

 They are rare in France, and unknown in Great 

 Britain. In fishing, they do not immediately swal- 

 low their prey, but fill their bag, and return to the 

 shore to consume at leisure the fruits of their indus- 

 try. As, however, they quickly digest their food, 

 they generally fish more than once in the course of 

 the day, and, for the most part, in the morning and 

 evening, when the fish are most in motion. A single 

 pelican will, at one repast, despatch as many fish as 

 would suffice for six men ; and in confinement, it 

 will, moreover, snap up rats and other small quad- 

 rupeds. At night, it retires a little way on the 

 shore to rest, with its head leaning against its breast ; 

 and in this attitude it remains almost motionless, till 

 hunger calls it to break off its repose. It then flies 

 from its resting-place, and, raising itself thirty or 

 forty feet above the surface of the sea, turns its head, 

 with one eye downwards, and continues on wing till 

 it sees a fish sufficiently near the surface, when it 

 darts down with astonishing swiftness, seizes it with 

 unerring certainty, and stores it up in its pouch ; it 

 then rises again, and continues the same manoeuvres 

 till it has procured a competent stock. The female 

 feeds her young with fish that have been macerated 

 for some time in her pouch. The pelican is not only 

 susceptible of domestication, but may even be trained 

 to fish for its master. When a number of pelicans 

 and corvorants (cormorants) get together, they are 

 said to practise a singular method of taking fish ; for 

 they spread into a large circle, at some distance from 

 land, the pelicans flapping on the surface of the 

 water with their extensive wings, and the corvorants 

 diving beneath, till the fish contained within the 

 circle are driven before them towards the land ; and, 

 as the circle contracts by the birds drawing closer 

 together, the fish are at length reduced within a nar- 

 row compass, when their pursuers find no difficulty 

 in securing them. In this exercise, they are often 

 attended by various species of gulls, which partici- 

 pate in the spoil. The pelican generally breeds in 

 marshy and uncultivated places, particularly about 

 islands and lakes, making its nest, which is deep, 

 and a foot and a half in diameter, of sedges and 

 aquatic plants, and lining it with grass of a softer 

 texture ; but it frequently dispenses with any such 

 formal construction. It lays two or more white eggs, 

 of equal roundness at the two ends, and which when 

 persecuted, it sometimes hides in the water. When 

 it nestles in dry and desert places, it brings water to 

 its young in its bag, which is capable of containing 

 nearly twenty pints of liquid ; but that it feeds them 

 with its own blood, must be ranked among the fabu- 



