320 
POPULAR HISTOEY OF BIRDS. 
" Nature's prime favourites were the pelicans ; 
High-fed, long-lived, and sociable and free, 
They ranged in wedded pairs, or martial bands. 
For play or slaughter. Oft have I beheld 
A little army take the wat'ry field ; 
With outstretch'd pinions form a spacious ring. 
Then pressing to the centre, through the waves, 
Enclose thick shoals within their narrowing toils. 
Till multitudes entangled fell a prey : 
Or, when the flying fish in sudden clouds, 
Burst from the sea, and flutter' d through the air 
These giant fowlers snapt them like mosquitos 
By swallows hunted through the summer sky*." 
Sir John Eichardson found the Eough-billed Pelican 
{Pelicanus tracliyfliynclms) as far north as Great Slave Lake, 
on his late Arctic search. He describes it as being very 
voracious, destroying still larger quantities of fish than the 
rishing Eagle, which abounds in the same district. " These 
birds/^ says Sir John, referring to the pelicans, generally 
choose a rapid for the scene of their exploits ; and, commen- 
cing at the upper end, suffer themselves to float down with 
the current, fishing as they go with great success, particu- 
larly in the eddies. When satiated, and with full pouches, 
they stand on a rock or boulder which rises out of the 
water, and air themselves, keeping their half-bent wings 
* Poetical Works of James Montgomery, vol. iv. pp. 1-114. 
