398 PELICAN. 



pounds. The bill is fifteen or sixteen inches long, the upper man- 

 dible flat and broad, furnished with a hook at the end ; the skin 

 between the sides of the under jaw red or yellowish, very flaccid, 

 and dilatable, reaching eight or nine inches down the neck, and 

 sometimes capable of containing three gallons of water ;'* the gape 

 of course is very wide;t on the top of the upper mandible is a rib 

 of crimson, the rest pale red at the base, growing yellow towards 

 the point ; the under one pale red ; tongue scarcely perceivable ; 

 irides hazel ; sides of the head bare, and flesh-coloured; hindhead 

 somewhat crested ; the plumage in general white, with a flesh- 

 coloured tinge, except the bastard wing and prime quills, which are 

 black, with white shafts; legs lead-colour ; claws grey; beneath the 

 plumage is a fine soft down. The bill in young birds is wholly 

 yellow. 



This species is common in some of the warmer parts of the Con- 

 tinent of Europe, but chiefly frequents the Torrid Zone ; seen in 

 incredible numbers in the Russian Dominions, about the Black and 

 Caspian Seas; and sometimes proceed a good way up the rivers which 

 fall into them, coining and going with the Swans, Geese, Storks, 

 and other birds ; are scarce towards the east, and seldom met with 

 so far north as the Siberian Lakes, though now and then seen on 

 that of Baikal, and on many of the coasts of the Mediterranean, 

 and the Islands therein ;% common in Greece, and said to build in 

 some of the rivers which flow into the Dannbe,§ straying sometimes 

 into Switzerland, one having been shot at Zurich ; but so rare there, 

 as not to be known by common people ; is now and then seen in 



* This is often used by the sailors for tobacco pouches, bringing it into form by putting 

 in a weight, and hanging the bag to dry in this state. We have, however, seen the pouch 

 dressed, and made into a lady's work bag, elegantly ornamented, appearing not unlike a well 

 dressed parchment, or vellum skin, but very pliant. 



f In one shewn some years since in London, the keeper could easily put in his head; and 

 mention has been made of another, shewn in France, whose gape was so wide as to admit 

 of the legs of a man with boots on. — Salern. Orn. 369. 



J In the Island of Majorca. § Hist, des Ois. 



