THE PELICAN. 
319 
the others by a membrane^ which thus includes the four 
toes, and makes of the foot a perfect oar. The Darters 
{Plotus) are distinguished by having a very long neck and 
a small head. 
Travellers meet with pelicans in most parts of the world ; 
and those who, like Mr. Fortune, visit China, sometimes 
see cormorants trained to catch fish, these birds being not 
only voracious to a proverb, but exceedingly intelligent and 
docile. 
The birds of this family are sociable, and are generally 
to be met with in flocks. In Plinders^s ' Voyage to Terra 
Aastralis' he mentions having seen the peHcans rearing 
their young together in great numbers, on the islets of a 
hidden lagoon of Kangaroo Island ; and he remarks that, 
from the number of skeletons and bones scattered about, 
it would seem that for ages these had been selected for 
the closing scene of their existence. . . . Nor,^^ adds he, 
" can anything be more consonant to their feelings, if peli- 
cans have any, than quietly to resign their breath, sur- 
rounded by their progeny, and in the same spot where they 
first drew it."'' On this passage the poet Montgomery has 
founded nine highly descriptive and suggestive cantos, under 
the name of the Pelican Island.' 
