CORMORANT.^. 105 



ample supply of them in their pouch, which is prodigiously dilata- 

 ble. They are spread overall the warm, temperate, and even the 

 almost frigid climates of the globe, and one of the species, the 

 common Pelican, may be considered a cosmopolite. 



21. The Common Pelican^ — Pelicanus onocrofahis, — (some- 

 times called onocrotalus, because its voice has been compared to 

 the braying of an ass,) the largest web-footed water-fowl known, 

 is five or six feet long with an alar spread of twelve feet ; the 

 beak alone is about a foot and a half in length, and its pouch 

 will contain a dozen quarts of water ; its plumage is more or 

 less purely white, according to its age, and the remiges are 

 black. It flies well, and sometimes rises to a great height ; but 

 in general, it skims the surface of the water, or balances at a 

 moderate elevation, in order to precipitate itself more readily 

 upon its prey ; sometimes it is seen to beat the water with its 

 wings as if to disturb it, and alarm the fishes, and we are assured, 

 when Pelicans are assembled in troops, they fish in company, by 

 forming a large circle which they gradually reduce to imprison 

 the fishes, until, at a given signal, they all strike the water at the 

 same time, and, under favour of the confusion, dive in and 

 seize their victims. The fishing over, they retire to some rocky 

 point or shoal, and there digest their gluttonous meal at their ease. 

 They can perch on trees, (which is very rare among the web- 

 footed birds,) but they do not nest in them ; they build on the 

 ground, in an excavation, which they line with herbs. The 

 female lays from four to six eggs, and feeds her young by dis- 

 gorging before them the fishes, which she brings in her pouch for 

 their use. It is also said that she carries them water in the same 

 way, and it is probable that the movement which she makes to 

 empty her pouch, by pressing it against her breast, has given rise 

 to the fable, referred by some writers, to the pretended habit 

 which these birds had of opening their breast to feed their young 

 family on their own blood, 



22. The Cormorants, — Phalacrocorax, — have an elongated, 

 compressed beak, the upper mandible hooked at the end, the 

 skin of the throat is but little dilatable, and does not form a pouch 

 as in the Pelicans ; the nail of the middle toe is toothed like a 

 saw, and the tail, which consists of fourteen feathers, is round. 

 They are excellent divers : they ordinarily swim with only the 

 head above water, and they pursue fishes, upon which they feed, 

 with astonishing rapidity, entirely under water. Their flight is 

 rapid and sustained; but on land, they walk badly, and sustain 



21. What are the characters of the common Pelican? What are its habits ? 



22. What are the characters of Cormorants ? How is the common Cor- 

 ■norant characterised ? 



