THE PELICAN. 2^1 



of wing, and are excellent swimmers ; their haunts are estuaries, the 

 sea-coast, and the banks of rivers, lakes, and marshes. In its habitat, 

 whenever a fish betrays its presence by leaping or flashing its glittering 

 scales in the sun, the Pelican will be seen sailing towards it. 



This bird has an appetite so insatiable and a stomach so capa- 

 cious that, in one day it devours as much food as would satisfy six 

 men. The Egyptians have nicknamed it the River Camel, because 

 it can imbibe at once more than twenty pints of water. Certainly 

 it only makes two meals a day ; but, oh, what meals they are ! 



Pelicans often travel in considerable flocks, visiting the mouths of 

 rivers or favourite retreats on the sea-coast. When they have made 

 choice of a suitable fishing-place, they arrange themselves in a wide 

 circle, and begin to beat the water with extended wing, so as to drive 

 the fish before them, gradually diminishing the circle as they ap- 

 proach the shore or some inlet on the coast. In this manner they 

 get all the fish together into a small space, when the common feast 

 begins. After gorging themselves, they retire to the shore, where the 

 process of digestion follows. Some rest with the neck over the 

 back ; others busily dress and smoothe their plumage, waiting pa- 

 tiently until returning appetite invites them to fresh exertions. When 

 thus quiescent, occasionally one of these birds empties his well-lined 

 pouch, and spreads in front of him all the fish that it contains, in 

 order to feed upon them at leisure. This pouch, which plays so 

 important a part in the Pelican's life, is composed of two skins, the 

 outer one being a prolongation of the skin of the neck ; the inner 

 one is contiguous to the coating of the oesophagus. 



In spite of its great size, the Pelican flies easily and to consider- 

 able distances. It is no diver, but will occasionally dash down on 

 fish from a considerable height, and with such velocity that it becomes 

 submerged ; but its buoyancy instantly brings it again to the surface. 

 It perches on trees, but seems to prefer rocks. Its nest is generally 

 formed of coarse reedy grass, lined with softer material, and placed 

 in the clefts of dry rocks near the water. Here the female deposits 

 two, three, four, sometimes five, white eggs, but most frequently only 

 two. Occasionally they will lay in an indentation in the ground 

 which they have previously roughly lined with blades of grass. 



After an incubation lasting from forty to forty-five days, the 

 young ones, covered with a greyish down, are hatched. The female 

 feeds them : she presses the hooked red point of the mandible against 

 her breast, which causes her to disgorge the fish it contains into the 

 bills of the young ones, the male performing the same operation on 

 himself for the benefit of his partner. This is probably the tact that 



