CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 8. NATATORES. 333 



out and leveled, and the ground disposed in squares for the nests, as accurately as )f a surveyor 

 had been employed. Their marchings and countermarchings arc said to remind the observer 

 of the maneuvers of soldiers on parade. In the midst of this apparent order, there appears to be, 

 according to the same accounts, not very good government, for the stronger species steal the eggs 

 of the weaker, if they are left unguarded, and the King Penguin is the greatest thief of all. 



But the dimensions of those rookeries we have noticed, sink into insignificance when compared 

 with a settlement of the King Penguins recorded by Mr. G. Bennett, who saw at the north end of 

 Macquarrie Island, in the South Pacific Ocean, a colony of these birds which covered an extent of 

 thirty or forty acres. He describes the number of penguins collected together in this spot as im- 

 mense ; but observes that it would be almost impossible to guess at it Avith any near approach to 

 truth, as, during the whole of the day and night, thirty or forty thousand are continually landing, 

 and an equal number going to sea. "They are arranged, when on shore, in as compact a man- 

 ner, and in as regular ranks as a regiment of soldiers ; and are classed with the greatest order, 

 the young birds being in one situation, the moulting birds in another, the sitting hens in a third, 

 the clean birds in a fourth, &c, ; and so strictly do birds in similar conditions congregate, that 

 should a bird that is moulting intrude itself among those which are clean, it is immediately ejected 

 from them. The females hatch the eggs by keeping them close between their thighs, and if ap- 

 proached during the time of incubation, move away, carrying their eggs with them. At this 

 time the male bird goes to sea and collects food for the female, which becomes very fat. After 

 the young is hatched, both parents go to sea, and bring home ibod for it ; it soon becomes so fat 

 as scarcely to be able to walk, the old birds getting very thin. They sit quite upright in their 

 roosting places, and walk in the erect position until they arrive at the beach, when they throw 

 themselves on their breasts, in order to encounter the very heavy sea met with at their landing- 

 place." 



There are still some other species. 



THE PELECANID^. 



Tliis family includes several large biixls of powerful organization, and voracious appetites, feed- 

 ing entirely on fishes, which they capture in various ways. 



THE TRUE PELICANS. 



Genus PELECANUS : Pelccanus. — The birds of this genus are large and heavy, with immense 

 extent of wing, and are excellent swimmers. The expansive pouch, whose elasticity is well 

 known to all who have witnessed the shapes into which it is stretched and formed by the itinerant 

 showman, will hold a considerable number of fish, and thus enables the bird to dispose of the 

 superfluous quantity which may be taken during fishing expeditions, either for its own consump- 

 tion or for the nourishment of its young. In feeding the nestlings — and the male is said to supply 

 the wants of the female when sitting, in the same manner — the under mandible is pressed against 

 the neck and breast, to assist the bird in disgorging the contents of the capacious pouch ; and 

 during this action the red nail of the upper mandible would appear to come in contact with the 

 breast; thus laying the foundation, in all probability, for the fable that the pelican nourished her 

 young with her blood, and for the attitude in which the imagination of painters has placed this 

 bird in books of emblems, (fcc, with the blood spirting from the wounds made by the terminating 

 nail of the upper mandible into the gaping mouths of her otispring. 



The neighborhood of rivers, lakes, and the sea-coasts, are the haunts of the Pelicans, and they 

 are rarely seen farther than twenty leagues from the land. They appear to be to a certain extent 

 gregarious. Levaillant, upon visiting Dassen-Eyland, where was the tomb of a Planish captain, at 

 the entrance of Saldanha Bay, beheld, as he says, after wading through the surf and clambering up 

 the rocks, such a spectacle as perhaps never before appeared to the eye of mortal. " All of a sud- 

 den there arose from the whole surface of the island, an impenetrable cloud, whicli formed, at the 

 distance of forty feet above our heads, an immense canopy, or rather a sky, composed of birds of 

 every species, and of all colors — cormorants, sea-gulls, sea-swallows, pelicans, and I believe the 

 whole winged tribe of this part of Africa were here assembled. All their voices, mixed together 



