412 THE FRIGATE BIRD. 
ANOTHER well-known British species of this genus is the CRESTED Cor- 
MORANT, GREEN CORMORANT, or SHAG, a bird which can at once be 
distinguished from the preceding species by the green colour of the plumage 
and the difference in size, the length of an adult male being only twenty- 
seven inches. In habits this species resembles the common Cormorant. 
WE now arrive at the well-known PELICAN, which is universally accepted 
as the type of the family. This bird is found spread over many portions of 
Africa and Asia, and is also found in some parts of Southern Europe. 
= The pouch of the Pelican is enor- 
im mously large, capable of containing 
two gallons of water, and is employed 
by the bird as a basket wherein to 
carry the fish which it has caught. 
The Pelican is a good fisherman, 
hovering above the water watching 
for a shoal of fish near the surface. 
Down sweeps the bird, scoops up a 
number of fish in its capacious pouch, 
» and then generally goes off home- 
; ward. 
The nest of the Pelican is placed 
on the ground in some retired spot, 
js usually an island in the sea, or the 
borders of some inland lake or a 
river. It is made of grasses, and con- 
tains two or three white eggs. The 
female sits on the eggs, and her 
mate goes off to fish for her; and 
when the young are hatched they are 
fed b: the parents, who turn the fish 
PELICAN.—(elecanus onocrotalus.) out of their pouches into the mouths 
of the young. 
The colour of the Pelican is white, with a delicate roseate tinge like 
that of a blush rose. On the breast the feathers are elongated and of a 
golden yellow. The quill feathers are black, and the bill is yellow tipped 
with rd. The length of the 
bird is almost six feet, and the 
expanse of wing about twelve 
feet. 
THE last bird on our list is the 
well-known FRIGATE BIkD, SEA 
Hawk, or MAN-OF-WAR BIRD, 
an inhabitant of the tropical seas. 
It derives its name of Man-of- 
war Bird from its habit of watch- 
NG ing the gannets when they fish, 
Aa : and then swooping upon them 
‘a Vid and robbing them of their prey. 
= 
hy 
ni) 
} The long black feathers of the 
FRIGATE BIRD.—(Avagen Aquila). tail are in great request among 
the Society Islanders, being 
woven as ornaments into the head-dresses of the chiefs, The nest of the 
Frigate Bird is sometimes built upon trees and bushes where the low shores 
afford no cliffs, but its usual locality for breeding is on the summit of some 
rocky cliff, On the rock there is no nest, but when the bird breeds among 
