114 W A T E R B I R D S. 



able. Probably other birds have the fame powers in various degrees, but 

 not fo traceable. 



Its amazing pouch may beconfidered as analogous to the crop in other 

 birds, with this difference, that as the^rs lies at the bottom and within the 

 gullet, fo this is placed on the outfide, and under the bill; it has no di- 

 geftive heat. She brings the ^ih frejh to her young; to difcharge its con- 

 tents, preffes the pouch on her breaft. At the bottom of its bag is a 

 tongue, but fo fmall that many have faid it had none. When tame is 

 very thievifh in fifh-markets. Eats fideways, and catches what is thrown 

 to it. 



The pelican, fays Labat, has ftrong wings, furnifhed with thick 

 plumage of an alli-colour, as are the reft of the feathers over the whole 

 body ; on the neck a {liort down ; on the nape of the neck longer, form- 

 ing a fmall tuft. Its eyes are very fmall, when compared to the fize of 

 its head, which is flattifn on the fides; its cheeks naked; its counte- 

 nance and its air melancholy. Torpid, inaftive and gluttonous. 



The female drops her eggs on the bare ground to the number of five or 

 fix, and there continues to hatch them. She feeds her young with filli 

 from her bag ; and, when they cry, flies off for a new fupply. 



The Americans kill vaft numbers, to convert their large bags into 

 purfes and tobacco-pouches, dreffmg the fkin with fait and alhes, rub- 

 bing it well with oil. It thus becomes fo foft and pliant, that the 

 Spanifn women fometimes adorn it with gold and embroidery to make 

 work-bags of. 



Father Raymond affures us, he has feen one that would go off in the 

 morning at the word of command, and return before night to its mafter, 

 with its great paunch diftended with plunder j part of which it was made 

 difgorge, and part it referved. 



" The pelican," as Fabcr relates, '* is not deftitute of other qualifica- 

 tions. One of thofe which was brought alive to the Duke of Bavaria's 

 court, where it lived forty years, feemcd to be poffeffed of very uncom- 

 mon fenfations. It was much delighted in the company and converfa- 

 tion of men, and in mufic, both vocal and inftrumental ; for it would wil- 

 lingly ft and," fays he, «« by thofe that fung or founded the trumpet; 

 and ftretching out its head, and turning his ear to the mufic, liften 

 very attentively to its harmony, though its own voice was little pleafanter 

 than the braying of an afs," whence the Greeks named it onocrotalos, 

 Gefner tells us, that the emperor Maximilian had a tame pelican which 

 lived for above eighty years, and that it always attended his arnny on their 

 3 march. 



