RUFOUS-NECKED PELICAN. 409 



FAM. PELECANUm (The Pelicans.) 



RUFOUS-NECKED PELICAN. 



Pelecanus /VACUA. LINN. 



Aud. pi. 251. 



THE high-road from Bluefields to Savanna le Mar 

 winds round the broad bend of the coast, called 

 Bluefields Bay ; for nearly half the distance, run- 

 ning close to the shore, which in some parts is a 

 low sandy beach, in others, rocky and precipitous. 

 About a mile from Bluefields the road recedes 

 about a hundred yards from the sea, the interven- 

 ing space being occupied by tall and dense wood, 

 consisting chiefly of manchioneel, crablight, sweet- 

 wood, and tropic-birch, much tangled by an under- 

 wood of briers and supple-jacks. As we approach the 

 brow of the cliff, we perceive that the descent, just 

 here, is not a perpendicular rock, but is a very 

 steep slope, covered with a loose and shifting rub- 

 ble, very unpleasant and even dangerous to the 

 feet. Two enormous birches and a fig, at some 

 distance from each other, springing out of the brow, 

 spread their immense boughs even over the sea 

 that boils among the rocks beneath; and the ob- 

 server needs no informant to tell him that these 

 trees are occupied as resting places by many large 



* Length 47 inches, expanse 79, flexure 18, tail 5, rictus 12, tar- 

 sus 3, middle toe 4^. 



T 



