WATER- FOWL. 



577 



bird, and very ill fitted to take those flights, 

 or to make those cautious provisions lor a dis- 

 tant time, which we have been told they do. 

 Father Labat, who seems to have studied 

 their manners with great exactness, has given 

 us a minute history of this bird, as found in 

 America; and from him I will borrow mine. 



The pelican, says Labat, has strong wings, 

 furnished with thick plumage of an ash-colour, 

 as are the rest of the feathers over the whole 

 body. Its eyes are very small, when com- 

 pared to the size of its head; there is a sad- 

 ness in its countenance, and its whole air is 

 melancholy. It is as dull and reluctant in 

 its motions, as the flamingo is sprightly and 

 active. It is slow of flight; and when it rises 

 to fly, performs it with difficulty and labour. 

 Nothing, as it would seem, but the spur of ne- 

 cessity could make these birds change their 

 situation, or induce them to ascend into the 

 air; but they must either starve or fly. 



They are torpid and inactive to the last 

 degree, so that nothing can exceed their in- 

 dolence but their gluttony ; it is only from 

 the stimulations of hunger that they are ex- 

 cited to labour; for otherwise they would 

 continue always in fixed repose. When they 

 have raised themselves about thirty or forty 

 feet above the surface of the sea, they turn 

 their head with one eye downwards, and con- 

 tinue to fly in that posture. As soon as they 

 perceive a fish sufficiently near the surface, 

 they dart down upon it with the swiftness of 

 an arrow, seize it with unerring certainty, and 

 store it up in their pouch. They then rise 

 again, though not without great labour, and 

 continue hovering and fishing, with their head 

 on one side as before. 



This work they continue with great effort 

 and industry till their bag is full, and then 

 they fly to land, to devour and digest at lei- 

 sure the fruits of their industry. This, how- 

 ever, it would appear, they are not long in 

 performing; for towards night they have ano- 

 ther hungry call, and they again reluctantly 

 go to labour. At night, when their fishing is 

 over, and the toil of the day crowned with 

 success, these lazy birds retire a little way 

 from the shore; and, though with the webbed 

 feet and clumsy figure of a goose, they will he 

 contented to perch no where but upon trees, 

 among the light and airy tenants of the forest. 



There they take their repose for the night; 

 and often spend a great part of the day, ex- 

 cept such times as they are fishing, sitting in 

 dismal solemnity, and, as it would seem, half 

 asleep. Their attitude is, with the head rest- 

 ing upon their great bag, and that resting upon 

 their breast. There they remain without mo- 

 tion, or once changing their situation, till the 

 calls of hunger break their repose, and till 

 they find it indispensably necessary to fill 

 their magazine for a fresh meal. Thus their 

 life is spent between sleeping and eating ; and 

 our author adds, that they are as foul as they 

 are voracious, as they are every moment void- 

 ing excrements in heaps as large as one's fist. 



The same indolent habits seem to attend 

 them even in preparing for incubation, and 

 defending their young when excluded. The 

 female makes no preparation for her nest, nor 

 seems to choose any j>lace in preference to 

 lay in ; but drops her eggs on the bare ground 

 to the number of five or six, and there con- 

 tinues to hatch them. Attached to the place, 

 without any desire of defending her eggs or 

 her young, she tamely sits, and suffers them 

 to be taken from under her. Now and then 

 she just ventures to peck, or to cry out when 

 a person offers to beat her ofF. 



She feeds her young with fish macerated for 

 some time in her bag; and when they cry, 

 flies off for a new supply. Labat tells us, that 

 he took two of these when very young, and 

 tied them by the leg to a post stuck into the 

 ground, where he had the pleasure of seeing 

 the old one for several days come to feed 

 them, remaining with them the greatest part 

 of the day, and spending the night on the 

 branch of a tree that hung over them. By 

 these means they were all three become so 

 familiar, that they suffered themselves to be 

 handled ; and the young ones very kindly ac- 

 cepted whatever fish he offered them. These 

 they always put first into their bag, and then 

 swallowed at their leisure. 



It seems, however, that they are but dis- 

 agreeable and useless domestics; their glut- 

 tony can scarcely be satisfied ; their flesh 

 smells very rancid; and tastes a thousand 

 times worse than it smells. The native Ame- 

 ricans kill vast numbers ; not to eat, for they 

 are not fit even for the banquet of a savage ; 

 but to convert their large bags into purses 



