(')50 CLASS AVES, 



and is therefore sometimes found in the interior. But these 

 birds are somewhat rare in European cabinets, and in the old 

 continent ; they appertain more to warm than cold climates ; 

 they are very common in Africa, on the borders of the Sene- 

 gal and the Gambia, where the negroes call them Pokko, on 

 the coasts of Angola, of Sierra Leone, of Guinea, at Mada- 

 gascar, Siam, and China, in the Sunda, Philippine, and 

 Manilla islands. They have also been met with in America, 

 from the Antilles, the Isthmus of Panama, and the Bay of 

 Campeachy, as far as Louisiana and Hudson's Bay, also in the 

 southern parts of Australia. 



The individuals which are reared in captivity eat rats and 

 other small mammifera, and they snap up and eat apart the 

 pieces which are thrown to them. It might, perhaps, be pos- 

 sible to employ these birds in fishing, as the Chinese do 

 the corvorant ; and, in fact, Pere Labat informs us that the 

 savages of the Western Islands have succeeded in doing this. 



We have already observed, that the bones of the pelican 

 are extremely slight ; and doubtless it is to the nature of 

 these solid parts, whose ossification is very tardy, that the 

 bird owes its very protracted existence. It has even been 

 remarked, that in captivity it lives longer than other birds. 

 Turner mentions a tame individual that lived fifty years. 



A singularity, which the pelican partakes in common with 

 many palmated birds, is that of perching on trees ; but it 

 does not nestle there, but constructs on the ground a nest a 

 foot and a half in diameter, furnished internally with soft 

 plants, in which the female lays two, three, or four white 

 eggs, pretty like those of the swan, and of equal size at 

 both ends. 



The flesh of the pelican was forbidden to the Jews as 

 unclean, a prohibition almost unnecessary, from its ill taste 

 and marshy odour. It may, however, be used for its oil, 

 and has been in request in America for that reason. The 



