PLATE 



XVIII. 



GENUS PELECANUS. 



ACCORDING to Buffon, the body of the Pelican is only exceeded in size by that of the Albatros. 

 From its remarkable construction and sage habits it has been embodied in the earliest writings 

 by historians and philosophers. Scripture mentions the "Pelican of the Wilderness;" the Egyptians 

 call it the "river camel;" in the most ancient carvings it figured as a type of motherly devotion, 

 for the Pelican is there seen feeding her hungry nestlings with drops of blood from her own breast. This 

 touching picture of constancy was probably suggested by the movements which are made by the 

 parent in compressing the pouch against the breast to force out the fish with which to feed the 

 young ones. 



Australia possesses one of the nine varieties of this remarkable genus ; three inhabit America, 

 and six are found in the Old World. They do not frequent the colder latitudes, favouring always 

 more temperate or tropical zones. 



The body is bulky, }'et the skeleton weighs only pounds. In the case of the Pelican as 

 well as in the Albatros, air is largely communicated to cells in the tubes of the feathers, the cellular 

 tissue, and even to the bones. By many this communication of air is considered to aid the bird largely 

 in its flight ; the temperature at which it is kept by the blood making it lighter than the surrounding 

 atmosphere. On this subject some remarks will be offered when dealing with the Albatros. 



In all countries where the Pelican is found, it pursues the same extraordinary method of 

 fishing, namely, that of beating the water, in numbers together, so as to frighten the prey into the 

 shallows, where it may be seized. 



The bones being so light, ossification is very slow, and the Pelican enjoys long life. Authentic 

 cases are recorded where one of these birds has lived over fifty years. 



Pere Labat has stated that the Pelican was used by the savages of some of the Western 

 Islands to catch fish and deliver them up to its masters, after the same method in which the Cormorant 

 is used by the Chinese. 



TELECAXUS CONSPICILL ATUS (Temm.) 



AUSTRALIAN PELICAN. Genus: Pelecanus. 



TI^HE single representative of this tribe which Australia boasts is among the largest of its kind, and, 

 J- although wanting the ornamental head-plumes possessed by some varieties, its varied markings fully 

 compensate for their absence. It is found on inlets and arms of the sea, on the rivers and creeks, 

 sometimes hundreds of miles inland, in Australia, and is common all over Tasmania, wherever it has 

 not been unfortunately driven away or destroyed by the spreading of settlement. 



The food consists of fish, and the method pursued by a large flock of these birds working- 

 together to obtain their food is an amazing and a most instructive sight. Spreading out so as to 

 enclose the space of water into the shallow end of which it is desired to drive the fish, they start, 

 apparently on the giving of a signal, beating the water into foam with their wings. Making thus a 



