i62 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



are long and pointed. The legs are not set so far back as in the Phalacrocoracidcs. 

 The Gannets agree witli the last mentioned faniil}- in the slight — even slighter — 

 development of the throat-pouch (which is naked) ; in the nostrils being closed in 

 the adult, though patent in the 3'oung ; and in their eggs being rough, chalky, and 

 unspotted. Although the Sulidcc have but a small throat-pouch, their gullet is 

 capable of great distention, so that they are able to swallow fishes — on which they 

 almost exclusivel}- feed — of considerable size. 



There are no representatives of the restricted family Pclecanida now to be 

 found in England, nor have there been any authentic records in recent times of 

 the occurrence in this country, of any which had not escaped from confinement. 

 In 1868, however. Professor Newton exhibited to the Zoological Society of London 

 the humerus (wing-bone) of a Pelican, found in the peat of the Cambridgeshire 

 fens ; and again, in 18 71, he exhibited a second wing-bone in that year, found buried 

 in Feltwell Fen, Norfolk, " thus proving the former existence of the bird in England 

 at no very distant period." The fact of the former bone having belonged to a young 

 bird, " points to its having been bred in this country. It is possible, from its large 

 size, that it belonged to Pchcanus. crispus'"' which now inhabits S. Europe and 

 N.E. Africa. 



HENRY O. FORBES. 

 ANNA FORBES. 



