PELECANID^ j PELICANS, GANNETS. 521 



roosting-places on the shore. If far out at sea, however, they 

 will fly all night. Their movements are remarkably graceful. 

 It is in the Pelicans and their allies, that we find the pouch 

 beneath the mouth most developed. Their bill is long and 

 straight, and the tip hooked ; the lower mandible is composed 

 of two flexible branches united only at the point ; and the 

 cheeks and throat are bare of feathers. Their powers of flight 

 are very great ; and this seems due not only to the great extent 

 of their wings, but also to the large size of the air-cells, which 

 are more extensive than in any other Birds. The Pelican is an 



Fro. 303. PELICAN. 



inhabitant of tropical climates, usually keeping near the shore, 

 but sometimes going inland for the purposes of incubation. It 

 hovers over the surface of the water, watching the shoals of 

 fish beneath ; then suddenly descends, sinking deep into the 

 water, and using its bill as a scoop, by which it entraps its 

 finny prey ; and rising to the surface by its own buoyancy, 

 immediately ascends again on expanded wings. Its pouch is so 

 capacious, that it will hold, when distended, two gallons of water. 

 The Gannet, or Solan Goose^ of our own coasts, the Brown 

 Gannet, or Booby of the South Seas (so called from its apathy 

 in allowing itself to be taken or knocked on the head), the 



