

CHAPTER VII 

 THE BRITISH PELICAN 



The gannet Gannets at St. Ives At Treen Dinas Appearance of 

 the bird when fishing The rise before the fall Gannet and 

 gull A contrast Gull and Great Northern Diver Gulls and 

 gannets in the pilchard season Bass, pollack and sand-eels An 

 extraordinary accident. 



"TT\R1TISH pelican" may seem almost too grand 

 J a name for a bird the size of our gannet, or 

 Solan goose ; but he is of that family, and 

 was once, in the Linnaean classification, of the very 

 genus a Pelicanus. Moreover, in this land of small 

 birds thanks to the barbarians who have extirpated 

 the big ones the Sula bassana is very large, being 

 little inferior to the goose, though he is certainly 

 small compared with his magnificent rose-coloured 

 relation, the greatest of the true pelicans. 



Until I came to Cornwall I never had a proper op- 

 portunity of observing this noble fowl and his fishing 

 methods ; here he is common all round the coast, 

 especially in the winter months, and when, as fre- 



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