CORMORANTS AND PKUCANS. 135 



tip. which tip is pressed against the breast when the contents 

 of the pouch have to be placed read}- for the young, it was 

 said that the little ones were fed by the mother's blood, which 

 also revived them when they had been killed by serpent venom! 

 The common cormorant is represented in China by the 

 species Pelecanus tnitmtiis (David). Pek'ccinus pkUippensis 

 is another species common from Mongolia southwards. But 

 for a little roseate colouring and a few yellow feathers or 

 the breast, the pelicans are white. Their feathers are of 

 lanceolate shape and with none of that close fitting nature 

 which characterizesthoseof some otherwater birds. Pelicans, 

 as a matter of fact, prefer the surface of the water to 

 its depths. It is said that they are capable of forming 

 strategic and tactical combinations with cormorants with 

 whom they are allied, and whose acquaintance they certainly 

 cultivate. When hunting under these circumstances the 

 cormorants go below and frighten the fish they cannot catch 

 to the surface where the pelicans scoop up the struggling 

 mass a dozen at a time! Acting alone, they are credited 

 with intelligence sufficient to enable them to form line with 

 yard-wide intervals, and so drive fish into shallow places 

 where like destruction can be dealt. The young help 

 themselves, not from the throat of the parent as with the 

 cormorants, but from the pouch. 



A flock of pelicans numbering several thousands, such 

 as may at times be seen during their migrations over lands 

 in their line of flight, must be a sight indeed. The pelican, 

 though apparently so clumsy, can yet rise to an immense 

 height and maintain a steady flight for a considerable time. 

 His body is said to be particularly well supplied with hollow 

 bones, so much so that an old writer declares the dried 

 skeleton to weigh no more than 30 oz. This for a bird knowr. 

 in China to weigh at times more than that in pounds, sounds 

 questionable, but may be true. Pelicansarealmost ubiquitous, 

 except in the colder countries. Hereabouts it has been my 

 fortune to have a close view of only one. That was on the 

 Xingpo river. The Captain of the old "Peking" and myself 

 watched it through our glasses as the steamer slowly made 

 her way into port. Personal friends have told me of a 

 rencontre with one on a marsh at the Fenghwang Shan. 

 They were snipe-shooting when they espied a big mass of 

 something in the distance which they could not at first make 

 out. With Xo. 8 shot only, there was no hope of bagging 

 anythingsohugeas a pelican, which anearer approach showed 

 the creature to be. Nevertheless a stalk was attempted, 

 foredoomed, as everybody who knows those marshes will 

 allow, to failure, for there is no cover, or rather was none. 

 Reclamation has provided a few dykes since then. But as the 



