BROWN PELICAN. 381 



age of the bird after the Hrst moult. The superb male whose portrait is 

 before you, and which was selected from among a great number, had it 

 about the last mentioned size, and capable of holding a gallon of water, 

 were the mandibles kept horizontal. This membrane is dried and used 

 for keeping snuff, gunpowder and shot. When fresh it may be extended 

 so as to become quite thin and transparent, like a bladder. 



This Pelican seldom seizes fish that are longer than its bill, and the 

 size of those on which it ordinarily feeds is much smaller. Indeed, seve- 

 ral which I examined, had in the stomach upwards of a hundred fishes 

 which were only from two to three inches in length. That organ is long, 

 slender, and rather fleshy. In some I found a great number of live blue- 

 coloured worms, measuring two and a half inches in length, and about 

 the thickness of a crow-quill. The gut is about the size of a swan's quill, 

 and from ten to twelve feet in length, according to the age of the indi- 

 vidual. 



At all periods the Brown Pelican keeps in flocks, seldom amounting 

 to more than fifty or sixty individuals of both sexes, and of different 

 ages. At the approach of the pairing time, or about the middle of April, 

 the old males and females separate from the rest, and remove to the 

 inner keys or to large estuaries, well furnished with mangroves of goodly 

 size. The young birds, which are much more numerous, remain along 

 the shores of the open sea, unless during heavy gales. 



Now let us watch the full grown birds. Some skirmishes have taken 

 place, and the stronger males, by dint of loud snappings of their bill, 

 some hard tugs of the neck and head, and some heavy beats with their 

 wings, have driven away the weaker, which content themselves with less 

 prized belles. The females, although quiet and gentle on ordinary oc- 

 casions, are more courageous than the males, who, however, are assiduous 

 in their attentions, assist in forming the nest, feed their mates while sit- 

 ting, and even share the labour of incubation with them. Now see the 

 mated birds, like the citizens of a newly laid out town in some part of 

 our western country, breaking the dry sticks from the trees, and convey- 

 ing them in their bills to yon mangrove isle. You see they place all their 

 mansions on the south-west side, as if to enjoy the benefit of all the heat 

 of that sultry climate. Myriads of mosquitoes buzz around them, and 

 alight on the naked parts of their body, but this seems to give them no 

 concern. Stick after stick is laid, one crossing another, until a strono- 

 platform is constructed. Now roots and withered plants are brouo-ht 



