363 THE PEL/ CAN. 



bones being so light as to be nearly transparent. It possesses 

 also, in a high degree, the capacity for containing air, already 

 spoken of (p. 52) when we treated of the lightness of some 

 birds ; its bones and feathers, as well as the space between the 

 skin and the flesh, being all reservoirs of air. Thus furnished, 

 the Pelicans will frequently, like the other air-supplied birds, 

 rise to an immense height. In one respect, indeed, this light- 

 ness operates against its procuring fish; for so large a surface 

 of so light a weight cannot easily be forced under water. 



The Pelicans aware of their inability to catch their prey 

 under water, in consequence of this buoyancy, adopt an equally 

 certain mode of supplying themselves ; for, assembling in 

 flocks, they unite their forces, and surrounding a shoal of fish, 

 strike the water with their wings ; and with the noisy splash- 

 ing frighten and drive them into a narrower compass, so that 

 the shoal at length becomes much compressed ; the upper part 

 is thus raised by the lower, when, at a certain signal, all the 

 Pelicans strike the water again, and in the general confusion 

 fill their pouches, and devour their contents at their leisure. 



The Russians, who have ample means of observing their 

 habits, owing to the immense flights arriving annually from the 

 Black Sea and the Sea of Azof, and alighting at the mouth of 

 the river Don, assert that the Pelicans take the Cormorants 

 into partnership on these occasions ; the Pelican extending its 

 wings and flapping the water, while the Cormorant, diving 

 below, drives the fish to the surface ; and when, by their joint 

 exertions, the shoal is driven into the shallows, and easily 

 taken by the Pelicans, the Cormorant helps himself out of his 

 companion's wide pouch ; but the statement should be received 

 with caution. 



We can vouch for the fact of sea-birds feeding on fish, 

 forced above the surface by the lower part of the shoal, having 

 witnessed a singular scene off the Hebrides during the herring 

 season. A whale of the smaller species* was observed pur- 

 suing a shoal of herrings about half a mile off. The fish were 



* The northern coasts were much frequented by this whale about that 

 time ; at Kirkwall Bay, in Orkney, we saw the remains of no less than 

 ninety- two, which had been recently driven on shore in a heavy gale. 



