382 BROWN PELICAN. 



with which a basin is formed for the eggs. Not a nest, you observe, is 

 placed very low ; the birds prefer the tops of the mangroves, although 

 they do not care how many nests are on one tree, or how near the trees 

 are to each other. The eggs, of which there are never more than three, 

 are rather elliptical, and average three inches and one-eighth in length, 

 by two inches and one-eighth in their greatest breadth. The shell is thick 

 and rather rough, of a pure white colour, with a few faint streaks of a 

 rosy tint, and blotches of a very pale hue, from the centre towards the 

 crown of the egg. 



The young are at first covered with cream-coloured down, and have 

 the bill and feet disproportionately large. They are fed with great care, 

 and so abundantly, that the refuse of their food, putrid and disgusting, 

 lies in great quantities round them ; but neither young nor old regard 

 this, however offensive it may be to you. As the former grow the latter 

 bring larger fish to them. At first the food is dropped in a well mace- 

 rated state into their extended throats ; afterwards the fish is given to them 

 entire ; and finally the parent birds merely place it on the edge of the 

 nest. The young increase in size at a surprising rate. When half fledged 

 they seem a mere mass of fat, their partially indurated bill has acquired 

 considerable length, their wings droop by their sides, and they would be 

 utterly unable to walk. The Vultures at this period often fall upon them 

 and devour them in the absence of their parents. The Indians also carry 

 them off in considerable numbers ; and farther eastward, on the Halifax 

 river, for instance, the Negroes kill all they can find, to make gombo 

 soup of them during winter. The crows, less powerful, but quite as cun- 

 ning, suck the eggs ; and many a young one which has accidentally fallen 

 from the nest, is sure to be picked up by some quadruped, or devoured 

 by the Shark or Balacuda. When extensive depredations have thus 

 been made, the birds abandon their breeding places, and do not return 

 to them. The Pelicans in fact are, year after year, retiring from the 

 vicinity of man, and although they afford but very unsavoury food at 

 any period of their lives, will yet be hunted beyond the range of civiliza- 

 tion, just as our best of all game, the Wild Turkey, is now, until to 

 meet with them the student of nature will have to sail round Terra del 

 Fuego, while he may be obliged to travel to the Rocky Mountains before 

 he find the other bird. Should you approach a settlement of the Pelicans 

 and fire a few shots at them, they all abandon the place, and leave their 

 eggs or young entirely at your disposal. 



