648 



CLASS AVES. 



Bullock's Museum. The crest, which is very ample, and 

 the legs are black ; the rest of the head, neck, breast, and 

 all beneath, are white ; the mantle, wings, and tail are slate- 

 coloured, slightly tinted with brown ; but the long lateral 

 tail-feathers are white. This bird has been described by M. 

 Lichtenstein, under the name of Sterna Bergii. 



The Rhynchops (Skimmer, Lath.) are birds which fre- 

 quent the coasts of America, from Carolina to Guiana. They 

 live on small fish, which they catch in the shallow parts of 

 the sea. They appear in flocks, and are perpetually on the 

 wing. They nestle on the cliffs. 



In the family of Totipalmat.e, the first genus is the cele- 

 brated Pelican. The general facts on which alone we shall 

 dwell here, must be considered as derived from observation 

 on the ordinary species. " This bird," saysBuffon, " would 

 be the largest of water-birds, were not the body of the alba- 

 tross more thick, and the legs of the flamingo so much longer. 

 Its neck-pouch is capable of containing twenty pints, or more, 

 of water, which caused it to be called by the Egyptians River 

 Camel, and it swallows into this sac, in a single fishing, as 

 much fish as would serve for the repast of six men." It 

 must appear surprising, that a bird of such vast dimensions 

 (it is sometimes six feet long, from point of bill to end of 

 tail, and twelve feet from wing-tip to wing- tip), should be 

 able to fly with as much facility as it swims ; but its entire 

 skeleton does not weigh a pound and a half, and its bones 

 are so slight that they are even transparent. Moreover, a 

 fact, observed by Lory, on the communication of air even into 

 the bones and the tubes of the feathers in birds, has been 

 verified, in a more especial manner, on the pelicans, by Mery, 

 who has proved the immense quantity of air contained under 

 their skin, and in the cellular tissue. This evidently contri- 

 butes to augment the volume of the body without increasing 

 the weight, and to render the action of flight more easy. 



