294 DUCKS, GEESE, SWANS, AND PELICANS. 



neighbourhood of rivers and lakes and the sea-coast, being rarely 

 seen more than twenty leagues from the land. Levaillant 

 describes one of those wonderful ornithological scenes which only 

 occur in uninhabited regions. At the entrance of Saldanha Bay, 

 on the south-west coast of Africa, after wading through the surf 

 and clambering up the rocks, "all of a sudden there arose from 

 the surface of the Island of Dassen-Eyland an impenetrable 

 cloud, which formed, at the distance of forty feet above our heads, 

 an immense canopy, composed of birds of almost everj' kind of 

 water-fowl — Cormorants, Sea GruUs, Sea Swallows, Pelicans, and I 

 believe the whole winged tribes of this part of Africa were here 

 assembled. Their voices, harsh and discordant, formed a noise 

 so unmusical that I was every moment compelled to cover my 

 head in order to relieve my ears. The alarm we created was so 

 much the more general, inasmuch as the birds disturbed were 

 chiefly sitting females. They had nests, eggs, and young to 

 defend." In this scene the Pelican, from its peculiar appearance, 

 was of course a prominent object. The best-known species are — 

 1, the White Pelican; 2, the Ci-ested Pelican; 3, the Brown 

 Pelican ; and 4, the Spectacled Pelican. 



The White Pelican. 



English Synontji.— WMte Pelican. 



Latin Synonyms. — Pelkamis onocroUdus : Linn., Temminck, Solby. 

 P. minor : EiippeU. 



Feench Synony'M. — Pelican Blanc : Temminck. 



The White Pelican {Pelicanus onocrotalus) is as large as a Swan. 

 Its bill is about fifteen inches in length. Its plumage is white, 

 with a slightly rosy tint, which is brightest in the breeding season ; 

 the pinnaries and spurious wings are black ; the crest and a few 

 feathers on the neck yellowish. 



This species received from the ancients the name of Onocrotalus, 

 because the}' fancied that they discovered a resemblance in its cry 

 to the braying of an ass. It is verj^ common on the lakes and 

 rivers of Hungary and Southern Russia, as well as on the banks of 

 the Danube. If it is seen in France, it is purely accidental, as it is 

 a rare visitor. A wild rocky shore, where it can look down on 



