440 NATATORES. 



that the bird, ia the process of feeding its young, crushes the fish 

 between its mandibles, and thus stains its white breast with 

 drops of blood. The Pelicans are rarely seen more than sixty 

 miles from land. They are gregarious, and nuYnerous in Asia 

 and Africa, as well as in Europe and America. 



The COMMON WHITE PELICAN, P. onocrotalus, (Gr. vnokrota- 

 Jos, a pelican,) is an European species, with which that of P. 

 Americanus, or the American White Pelican, very nearly 

 agrees. The American, however, differs from the European 

 bird in having a " long, thin, bony process in the upper mandi- 

 ble." " The male of the American species is sixty-one and three- 

 fourths inches long; bill thirteen and three-fourths inches ; ex- 

 panse of wings one hundred and three inches." In this species, 

 the feet and pouch are pale yellow, as are the long feathers on the 

 breast, and the tuft on the back of the head. 



The BROWN PELICAN, P.fuscus, (Lat. brown.) is, when ma- 

 ture, fifty-two inches in length ; the expanse of wings is eighty 

 inches. It is very abundant on the American coast as far north- 

 ward as North Carolina ; breeds on trees, and also on the ground ; 

 the pouch is usually from six to ten inches in depth, and will 

 hold a gallon of water. This membrane is sometimes dried, and 

 used for keeping snuff, gun-powder, and shot. The quantity offish 

 which the Brown Pelicans consume, is extremely large. They 

 often times become so overburdened with food, that flight is diffi- 

 cult. Audubon examined one which had in the stomach up- 

 wards of a hundred small fishes ; sometimes " he found in that 

 organ a great number of live, blue colored worms, measuring 

 about two and a half inches in length, and about the thickness 

 of a Crow-quill." The bodies of these birds are greatly inflated 

 by air-ceils ; their bones are very light ; and they are hard to 

 kill. The Black-headed Gull, which is abundant along the 

 coast of Florida in spring and summer, closely watches the 

 motions of these Pelicans, in order to seize the small fishes which 

 in letting off the water from the bill, they sometimes allow to 

 escape ; for that purpose, the Gull alights on the Pelican's bill, 

 or on his head, and seizes the prey when apparently just on the 

 eve of deliverance, the Pelican, meanwhile, exhibiting no 

 symptoms of annoyance or anger. 



The CORMORANTS are included in the genus Plialacrocorax, 

 (Gr. phalakros, bald ; korax, raven.) They are widely spread 

 over many parts of the world, and every where remarkable for 

 their voraciousness. The bill in these birds is about as long as 

 the head, rather slender, nearly straight, and compressed towards 

 the end, the upper mandible ending in a powerful hook ; the sac 



