THE PELICAN. 



203 



surface of the sea, they turn their head with 

 one eye downwards, and continue to fly in 

 that posture. As soon as they perceive a fish 

 sufficiently near the surface, they dart down 

 upon it with the swiftness of an arrow, seize it 

 with unerring certainty, and store it up in 

 their pouch. They then rise again, though 

 not without great labour, and continue hover- 

 ing and fishing, with their head on one side 

 as before. 



This work they continue with great effort 

 and industry till their bag is full, and then 

 they fly to land to devour and digest at 

 leisure the fruits of their industry. This, 

 however, it would appear, they are not long 

 in performing ; for towards night they have 

 another hungry call, and they again reluc- 

 tantly go to labour. At night, when their 

 fishing is over, and the toil of the day 

 crowned with success, these lazy birds retire 

 a little way from the shore ; and, though with 

 the webbed feet and clumsy figure of a goose, 

 they will be contented to perch no where but 

 upon trees, among the light and airy tenants 

 of the forest. There they take their repose 

 for the night ; and often spend a great part of 

 the day, except such times as they are fish, 

 ing, sitting in dismal solemnity, and, as it 

 would seem, half asleep. Their attitude is, 

 with the head resting upon their great bag, 

 and that resting upon their breast. There 

 they remain without motion, or once chang- 

 ing their situation, till the calls of hunger 

 break their repose, and till they find it indis- 

 pensably necessary to fill their magazine for 

 a fresh meal. Thus their life is spent be- 

 tween sleeping and eating ; and our author 

 adds, that they are as foul as they are vora- 

 cious, as they are every moment voiding ex- 

 crements in heaps as large as one's fist. 



The same indolent habits seem to attend 

 them even in preparing for incubation, and 

 defending their young when excluded. The 

 female makes no preparation for her nest, nor 

 seems to choose any place in preference to lay 

 in ; but drops her eggs on the bare ground to 

 the number of five or six, and there continues 

 to hatch them. Attached to the place, with- 

 out any desire of defending her eggs or her 

 young, she tamely sits, and suffers them to be 

 taken from under her. Now and then she 

 just ventures to peck, or to cry out when a 

 person offers to beat her off. 



She feeds her young with fish macerated 

 for some time in her bag ; and when they 

 cry, flies off for a new supply. Labat tells 

 us, that he took two of these when very young, 

 and tied them by the leg to a post stuck into 

 the ground, where he had the pleasure of 

 seeing the old one for several days come to 

 feed them, remaining with them the greatest 

 part of the day, and spending the night on 



the branch of a tree that hung over them. 

 By these means they were all three become 

 so familiar, that they suffered themselves to 

 be handled ; and the young ones very kindly 

 accepted whatever fish he offered them. These 

 they always put first into their bag, and then 

 swallowed at their leisure. 



It seems, however, that they are but disagree- 

 able and useless domestics ; their gluttony can 

 scarcely be satisfied ; their flesh smells very 

 rancid ; and tastes a thousand times worse 

 than it smells. The native Americans kill 

 vast numbers ; not to eat, for they are not fit 

 even for the banquet of a savage ; but to con. 

 vert their large bags into purses and tobacco 

 pouches. They bestow ~no~small pains in 

 dressing the skin with salt and ashes, rubbing 

 it well with oil, and then forming it to their 

 purpose. It thus becomes so soft and pliant, 

 that the Spanish women sometimes adorn 

 it with gold and embroidery to make work- 

 bags of. 



Yet with all the seeming habitudes of this 

 bird, it is not entirely incapable of instruction 

 in a domestic state. Father Raymond assures 

 us, that he has seen one so tame and well edu- 

 cated among the native Americans, that it 

 would go off in the morning at the word of 

 command, and return before night to its 

 master, with its great pouch distended with 

 plunder ; a part of which the savages would 

 make it disgorge, and a part they would per- 

 mit it to reserve for itself. 



" The pelican," as Faber relates, " is not 

 destitute of other qualifications. One of 

 these which was brought alive to the duke of 

 Bavaria's court, where it lived forty years, 

 seemed to be possessed of very uncommon 

 sensations. It was much delighted in the 

 company and conversation of men, and in 

 music both vocal and instrumental : for it 

 would willingly stand," says he, " by those 

 that sung, or sounded the trumpet; and 

 stretching out its head, and turning its ear to 

 the music, listened very attentively to its 

 harmony ; though its own voice was little 

 pleasanter than the braying of an ass." Ges- 

 ner tells us, that the emperor Maximilian had 

 a tame pelican, which lived for above eighty 

 years, and that always attended his army on 

 their march. It was one of the largest of the 

 kind, and had a daily allowance by the 

 emperor's orders. As another proof of the 

 great age to which the pelican lives, Aldro- 

 vandus makes mention of one of these birds 

 that was kept several years at Mechlin, 

 which was verily believed to be fifty years 

 old. We often see these birds at our shows 

 about town. 



