PELICANS. 



357 



the openings of which are scarcely perceptible; the skin of their throat is 

 more or less extensible, and their tongue is very small. 



The Pelicans, properly so called (Pclicanus), are provided with a beak remarkable 

 for its great length; it is flattened horizontally, of great breadth, and terminated by a large 

 hook. The lower mandible is very remarkable : it consists of two long flexible branches 

 that sustain a wide muscular bag. The Common Pelican (Pdicanus Onocrotalns) is 

 about the size of a swan; its plumage white, with a roseate tint, and the hook at the 

 end of its beak blood-red : it is able to carry provisions and water in the bag beneath 

 its throat. 





. 395. THE GANXEP 



The Cormorants (Phalacrocora.r}* have the beak elongated and com- 

 pressed, and the end of the upper mandible hooked ; the claw of the middle toe 

 is toothed like a saw. These birds are proverbially voracious and destructive 

 to fish. They make their nests in the clefts of rocks and amongst trees, where 

 they lay three or four eggs. 



The 'Frigate Birds (Pdicanus aguilas] differ from the cormorants in 

 having a forked tail, and both mandibles hooked at the end. Their flight is 

 so powerful that they are everywhere to be seen in tropical seas at immense 

 distances from land, sweeping down upon flying-fishes, or pursuing other birds, 

 which they compel to disgorge their prey. The spread of their wings is 

 sometimes ten feet from tip to tip. 



The Gannets (Sulcf) and the Tropic Birds (Phaeton} are of similar 

 structure and habits, but of smaller dimensions. 



* <a\a\7>6s, phalacros, bald-headed ' ; 



", corax, a craiv : bald-headed c 



