42 THE BOOK OF BIRDS 



as the specimens kept of late years in St. James's Park, 

 London, have clearly proved. 



Never again is it likely that the wild Pelican will nest 

 and rear its brood in our island, though centuries ago it 

 lived in those eastern flats which were once marsh and reed- 

 bed and lagoon, and which are still called, or miscalled, 

 " The Fens." 



The bones of two large Pelicans were found, not so long 

 ago, in the peat of the Isle of Ely. Hundreds of years 

 must have passed by since the sunshine flashed upon their 

 white plumage. And it was an England vastly different 

 from that of to-day which their eyes looked upon, as they 

 sailed in from the sea to choose their home among the 

 waving sedges of " the illimitable marsh." 



