73 



PELECANIDiE. 



1 HE feet of the birds comprised in this family 

 exhibit their chief characteristic distinction ; these 

 parts being furnished invariably with four toes, all of 

 which are united together by the same membrane : 

 their beak is longer than the head : it is strong and 

 robust, sometimes compressed, and armed on its edges 

 with saw-like denticulations, and generally bent down, 

 or hooked, at the tip : their legs are very short, and 

 the tibi£8 are naked on the lower part in some of the 

 genera, and totally clothed with feathers in the rest : 

 their wings are usually long and powerful. 



In habit some of these birds approximate towards 

 the Falcons, the genus Fregatta especially (as justly 

 pointed out by my friend N. A. Vigors, Esq. in his 

 acutely written paper on the Natural Affinities, &c. of 

 Birds, read before the Zoological Club of the Lin- 

 nean Society, and also before the Society itself, and 

 since published in their Transactions) ; whose resem- 

 blance is so complete as to have led Linnaeus to name 

 the only species known by him, Pelecanus Aqiiilus : 

 its form partakes amazingly of that of the Eagles, 

 and there is much similarity in the method of catching 

 and securing its prey to that adopted by the Sea 

 Eagles : this remarkable similitude among the Na- 

 tatores is a most satisfactory proof that the doctrine 

 of the circular distribution of animated beings, laid 

 down by the learned author of the Hor^ Entomo- 

 logiae, is in accordance with the plan of Nature, in 



