BIRDS. 449 



mentioned, — the pelicans. These fish-eating birds are mostly found in 

 the warm regions, and are too well known to need description. We 

 have two species, a white and a brown, the former of which can scarcely 

 be distinguished from the European form figured. Our white pelican 

 breeds in the north, always selecting some remote and inaccessible spot 

 for its nest. In the winter it goes south and stays along the shore of 

 the Gulf states. In fishing, it swims along, striking the surface of the 

 water with its wings, and scooping the fish into that admirable fish-net, 

 the pouch under the lower jaw. At times this is so filled that it hangs 

 nearly to the ground ; and then the fish retires to the shore to eat them 

 at his leisure. 



"It is a pleasant sight," says Mr. Gosse, "to see a flock of pelicans 

 fishing. A dozen or more are flying on heavy, flagging wing over the sea, 

 the long neck doubled on the back, so that the beak seems to protrude 

 from the breast. Suddenly a little ruffling of the water arrests their atten- 

 tion ; and, with wings half closed, down each plunges with a resounding 

 plash, and in an instant emerges with a fish. The beak is held aloft, a 

 snap or two is made, the huge pouch is seen for a moment or two distended, 

 then collapses as before ; and heavily the bird rises to wing, and again 

 beats over the surface with its fellows. It is worthy of observation that 

 the pelican invariably performs a . somersault under the surface ; for, 

 descending, as he always does, diagonally, not perpendicularly, the head 

 emerges looking in the opposite direction to that in which it was look- 

 ing before." 



The common gannet is a northern species, which in winter descends on 

 the more southern coasts. It is a beautiful white bird, with a long, grace- 

 fully curved neck, long, strong wings tipped with black. Its principal 

 breeding places on our coasts are the islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 On Gannet Rock it is estimated that fifty thousand pairs of females come 

 every spring to lay their eggs. They feed upon fishes, which they catch 

 by plunging from on high, and it is said that each fish caught is swallowed 

 at once, and those necessary to feed the young are disgorged after the 

 return to the shore. The booby, the first-cousin to the gannet, is a darker 

 bird, with brown predominating on the upper surface. It lives in the 

 countries around the Gulf of Mexico, and usually ranges but a short dis- 

 tance north. 



The bill of the cormorants, or shags, is much like that of the frigate- 

 bird already figured, and they have also a pouch beneath the neck, but in 

 several structural characters they differ considerably. Of the nearly forty 

 species known but few need mention, but there is one which must not be 

 neglected. 



