TASTE OF PISCIVOROUS BIRDS. 163 



trained to fish, and we are accordingly informed by 

 M. Pirard that it has been actually employed in this 

 manner by the Chinese*. Labat also tells us that 

 the Indians trained a pelican, which they despatched 

 in the morning after having stained it red, and that 

 it returned in the evening with its bag full of fish 

 which it was made to disgorge (. 



The sac or bag of the pelican is an elastic flesh- 

 coloured membrane, which hangs from the lower 

 edges of the under mandible, reaching the whole 

 length of the bill to the neck, said to be capacious 

 enough to hold about four gallons of water. The - 

 bird has the power of contracting the bag by wrinkling 

 it up under the mandible, so that it is scarcely visible ; 

 but after a successful fishing, it is incredible to what 

 extent it is frequently distended. It preys chiefly 

 upon the larger fish, with which it fills its capacious 

 pouch in order to digest them at leisure; and Sir 

 Joseph Banks remarked, that one which he observed 

 showed considerable dexterity in tossing about the 

 fish stored up in its bag till it lay in the proper 

 position to be swallowed J. 



Dr. Paley has made this singular bag in the pelican 

 the basis of some excellent remarks on the theory 

 that the organs of animals have been formed not by 

 the Creator, but by their own efforts and habits, 

 which we think it may be useful to quote. The bag 

 of the pelican, say the theorists, is the result, " not of 

 the habit or effort of a single pelican, or of a single 

 race of pelicans, but of a habit perpetuated through 

 a long series of generations. The pelican soon found 

 the conveniency of reserving in its mouth, when its 

 appetite was glutted, the remainder of its prey, which 

 is fish. The fulness produced by this attempt, of 



* Voyage de Pirard, i. 376. 



f Quoted by Buftbn, Oiseaux, Art. Le Pelecan* 



I Sir E, Home, Comp.Anat, i. 306, 



