352 THE OCEAN. 



Another species, found in the same locality, is called 

 S. taxifoUum, from its likeness to the yew. The 

 former are highly interesting on another account : 

 they afford a remarkable illustration of the fact, 

 that the seed-receptacles of some sea-plants are 

 metamorphosed after the discharge of their seeds 

 into leaves and air-vessels. Few would suspect that 

 the round air-cells, that look like green berries, and 

 the curled and thorny leaves, were alike the slender 

 processes containing the seed, only in another stage of 

 development ; yet specimens are often found in which 

 the process is actually going on, both the one and the 

 other being but partially transformed. The pores with 

 which the surface of the leaves are studded, are but 

 the orifices through which the seeds escaped. 



As we approach the Cape of Good Hope, the sea- 

 birds peculiar to high latitudes again appear, and 

 the sea and air are enlivened by myriads of gulls, 

 terns, petrels, frigate-birds, and albatrosses. But we 

 have yet to notice one pre-eminent among them, a 

 master-fisher, which, for its extraordinary powers of 

 consuming the finny prey, is, perhaps, unrivalled. 

 It is the Pelican {Pelecanus onocrotalus), which 

 abounds all around the shores of the Indian Ocean, 

 ranging to the distance of several hundred miles 

 from the coasts. This bird has great powers of 

 flight, the extended wings covering a space of twelve 

 feet. The throat is dilated into a capacious bag, 

 which can be wrinkled up when not in use, but 

 when the animal is fishing forms a convenient pouch, 

 in which the prey is stored as it is caught, until it 

 is filled, when the booty is borne to shore, to feed 



