PELICAN. 399 



France, as one was killed in the province of Dauphiny, and another 

 on the River Saone, in Lorraine.* I find an account of one being- 

 shot in England, at Horsey Fen, in May, 1663, which measured 

 three yards from the tip of one wing to that of the other ;-f and some 

 years since, a Pelican was seen to fly over the seat of the late Sir 

 Gregory Page, on Blackheath, in Kent, but this was of a brownish 

 colour. In Africa they are pretty numerous, coming there in Sep- 

 tember, flying in flocks, forming a wedge shape, with the point 

 foremost, like Wild Geese. Often seen in Barbary, at no great 

 distance from Tangier, and from thence sometimes visit the coast of 

 Andalusia, and this in the winter season ; as it is observed by 

 Hasselquist, that Pelicans migrate at that time from Asia into Egypt. 

 In Damietta and other parts not uncommon, as well as on the Coast 

 of Senegal, and parts adjacent ; that of Guinea, and the Gold Coast; 

 also from thence to the Cape of Good Hope, in the bays and rivers ;% 

 and in many other parts both of Asia and Africa. The female makes 

 the nest of reedy grass, in the mossy, turfy places, chiefly in the 

 Islands of the Lakes, remote from man, a foot and a half in diameter, 

 deeply hollowed, and filled with soft grass; laying two or more 

 white eggs, much like those of the Swan, and sits about the same 

 length of time. If any person disturbs the bird whilst sitting, she 

 is said to take the eggs out of the nest with the bill, and to drop 

 them into the water, returning them to their place, as soon as the 

 enemy is out of sight. § 



The chief food of the Pelican is fish ; is frequently observed 

 hovering over the water, and as soon as it sees a fish beneath, plunges 

 in an instant, seldom missing its aim, the enormous gape of the bill 



* Hist, des Oh. t See MS in Br. Mits. No. 1S30, 16 E. in a Memoir by T. Brown, 

 Norwich, a quere is put here, whether it might not be one of the King's Pelicans, kept at 

 St. James's, which had been lost about the same time. 



* In Sea Cow River, in December. — Phil. Trans, lxvi. 29. And by hundreds in Ver- 

 loore Valley. — Id. 309. By thousands in Mossel Bay according to Levaillant. " J'y trou- 

 " vois par milliers des Pelicans, et des Phoenicopteres ou Flamans."— Voy. Fr. ed. i. p. 101. 



§ Dec. russ, i. 141. 



