AMERICAN PELICAN. 
But the fable is not in the slightest degree ap- 
plicable to the Pelican, 
Father Labat informs us, that nothing can 
exceed the indolence of the Pelican, but it's 
gluttony. When it has, with difficulty, raised 
itself thirty or forty feet above the sea, it turns 
it's head with one eye dire6ted downwards, 
and continues to fly in that position till it per- 
ceives a fish sufficientlv near the surface ; when, 
with amazing swiftness, and unerring certainty, 
it darts down, and seizes the fish, which it 
deposits in it's bag. Thus it proceeds, though 
always rising slowly, till it has filled it's 
pouch; when it flies to land, and devours the 
•prey at leisure. At night, this indolent bird 
retires a little way from the shore; and, though 
it has the webbed feet and clumsy figure of a 
goose, it will perch only on son\e tree, among 
the light and airv tenants of the forest. Here, 
too, it spends great part of the day ; sitting in 
dismal solemnitv, and seemingly half asleeju 
Nor is It less filthy, than slothful and voraci- 
ous ; being seen, ahnost every moment, to- 
void excrements cf prodigious magnitude. 
The 
