184 PELICANS NOT NATIVES. 
But, if the poet’s Swans are not Geese, 
assuredly his Pelicans are Albatrosses! The 
succeeding lines are conclusive :— 
« Nature’s prime favourites were the Pelicans ; 
High-fed, long-lived, and sociable and free, 
They ranged in wedded pairs, or martial bands, 
For play or slaughter. Oft have I beheld 
A little army take the wat’ry field, 
With outstretch’d pinions form a spacious ring, 
Then pressing to the centre, through the waves, 
Enclose thick shoals within their narrowing toils, 
Till multitudes entangled fell a prey: 
Or, when the flying-fish in sudden clouds 
Burst from the sea, and flutter'd through the air, 
These giant fowlers snapt them, like musquitos 
By swallews hunted through the summer sky.” 
After what we have heard, the mention 
of the Flying-fish must be fatal; and the 
? 
‘‘ Giant-fowlers,” with their “ outstretched 
pinions,” are no other than Albatrosses. The 
** javelin-pointed bill” agrees but little with 
the true description of the hunter of the 
Flying-fish ; for the bill of the Albatross, as 
well as the whole figure of the bird, reminds 
us more or less of the Eagle; and this, no 
doubt, is the Pelecanus Aquillus of Lin- 
