P E L 
PEN 
S 70 PEL 
fnay hold Its prey with more security ; it 
has no nostrils, but in their place a long fur- 
row, that reaches almost to the end of the 
bill; the whole is of a dirty white, tinged 
with ash-colour. 
From the corner of the mouth is a narrow 
slip of black bare skin, that extends to the 
hind part of the head; beneath the chin is 
another, that, like the pouch of the pelican, 
is dilatable, and of size sufficient to contain 
five or six entire herrings ; which in the 
breeding season it carries at once to its mate 
or its young. 
The young birds, during the first year, 
differ greatly in colour from the old ones ; 
being of a dusky hue, speckled with numer- 
ous triangular white spots ; and at that time 
resemble in colour the speckled diver. Each 
bird, if left undisturbed, would only lay 
one egg in the year ; but if that is taken 
away, they will lay another ; if that is also 
taken, then a third, but never more that sea- 
son. The egg is white, and rather less than 
that of the common goose ; the nest is large, 
and formed of any thing the bird finds float- 
ing on the water, such as grass, sea-plants, 
shavings, &c. These birds frequent the isle 
of Alisa, in the frith of Clyde ; the rocks ad- 
jacent to St. Kilda ; the Stalks of Souliskerry, 
near the Orkneys ; the Skelig isles off the 
coasts of Kerry, Ireland; and the Bass isle 
in the frith of Forth: the multitudes that 
inhabit these islands are prodigious. 
4. The sulla, or boctby, is somewhat less 
than a goose. The colours of the body are 
brown and white ; but varied so in different 
individuals, that they cannot be described 
by them. Their wings are very long ; their 
legs and feet pale yellow, shaped like those 
of cormorants. They frequent the Bahama 
islands, where they breed all months in the 
year, laying one, two; or three eggs on the 
bare rock. While young, they are covered 
with a white down, and continue so till they 
are almost ready to fly. I hey feed on fish 
like the rest of this genus; but have a very 
troublesome enemy in the man-of-war bird, 
which lives on the spoils obtained from other 
sea-birds, particularly the booby. As soon 
as this rapacious enemy perceives that the 
booby has taken a fish, he flies furiously at 
him, upon which the former dives to avoid 
the blow' ; but as he cannot swallow his prey 
below water, he is sqon obliged to come up 
again with the fish in his bill as before, when 
he suffers a new assault ; nor does his enemy 
cease to persecute him till he lets go the fish, 
which the other immediately carries off. 
5. The aquilus-, or man-of-war bird, is in 
tjie body about the size of a large fowl ; in 
length three feet, and in breadth fourteen. 
The bill is slender, five inches long, and 
much curved at the point ;• th.e colour is 
dusky ; from the under mandible hangs a 
large* membranaceous bag attached some way 
down the throat, as in the pelican, and ap- 
plied to the same uses; the colour of this 
is a fine deep red, sprinkled on the sides 
with a few scattered feathers ; the w hole 
plumage is brownish black, except the wing- 
coverts, which have a rufous tinge ; the tail 
is long and much forked ; the outer feathers 
are eighteen inches or more in length, the 
middle ones from seven to eight ; the legs 
are small, all the toes are webbed together, 
and the webs are deeply indented ; the 
colour of them is dusky red. 
The frigate-pelican, or man-of-war bird, as 
it is by some called, is chiefly, if not wholly, 
met with between the tropics, and ever out 
at sea, being only seen on the wing. Some- 
times it soars so high in the air as to be 
scarcely visible yet at other times approach- 
es the surface of the sea, where, hovering at 
some distance, the moment he spies a fish 
lie darts dow n on it with the utmost rapi- 
dity, and seldom without success, flying up- 
wards again as quick as he descended. It is 
also seen to attack gulls and other birds 
which have caught a fish, when it obliges 
them to disgorge it, and then takes care to 
seize it before it falls iiito the water. 
6. The onocrotalus, or pelican of Asia, 
Africa, and America; though Linnasus thinks 
that the pelican of America may possibly 
be a distinct variety. This creature, in 
Africa, is much larger in the body than 
a swan, and somewhat of the same shape 
and colour. Its four toes are all webbed 
together, and in some measure resemble 
tho se of a swan ; but that singularity 
in which it differs from all other birds is 
in the bill, and the great pouch underneath. 
This enormous bill is 15 inches from the 
point to the opening of the mouth, which is 
a good way back behind the eyes. At the 
base the bill is somewhat greenish, but varies 
towards the end, being of a reddish blue. 
It is very thick in the beginning, but tapers 
off to the end, where it hooks downwards. 
The under chap is still more extraordinary ; 
for to the lower edges of it hangs a bag, 
reaching the whole length of the bill to the 
neck, which is said to be capable of contain- 
ing 15 quarts of water. This bag the bird 
has the power of wrinkling up into the hol- 
low of the under chap ; but by opening the 
bill, and putting the hand down into the bag, 
it may be distended at pleasure. The first 
thing the pelican does in fishing is, to fill up 
the bag ; and then it returns to digest its 
burden at leisure. Tertre affirms, that it 
will hide as many fish as will serve 60 hungry 
men at a meal. 
This pelican was once also known in 
Europe, particularly in Russia ; but it seems 
to have deserted our coasts. This is the 
bird of which so many fabulous accounts have 
been propagated ; such as its feeding its young 
with its own blood, and its carrying water into 
the desert for them in its great reservoir. 
But the absurdity of the first account answers 
itself ; and as for the latter, the pelican uses 
its bag for very different purposes than that 
of filling it with water. 
The pelican feeds her young with fish ma- 
cerated for some time in her bag, and when 
they cry, flies off for a new supply. Labat 
tells us, that he took two of these when 
very young, and tied them by the leg to a 
post stuck in the ground, where he had the 
pleasure of seeing the old one for several 
days come to feed them, remaining with 
them the greatest part of the day, and spend- 
ing the night on the branch of a tree that 
hung over them. By these means they were 
all three become so familiar, that they suf- 
fered thenvselves to be handled ; and the 
young ones very kindly accepted whatever 
fish he offered them. These they always 
put first into their bag, and then swallowed 
at their leisure. 
It seems, however, that they are but dis- 
agreeable and useless domestics ; their glut- 
tony can scarcely be satisfied ; their fieslv 
smells very rancid, and tastes a thousand 
t.vies worse than it smells. The native 
Americans kill vast numbers; not to eat, for 
1 hey are not fit even for the banquet of a 
savage, but to convert their large bags into 
purses and tobacco-pouches. r l hey bestow 
no small pains in dressing the skin with salt 
and ashes, rubbing it well with oil, and then 
forming it to their purpose, it thus becomes- 
so soft and pliant, that the Spanish w omn 
somethin s adorn it with gold and embroidery,, 
to make woik-bags of. 
PELLICLE, among physicians, kc. de- 
notes a thin film, or fragment of a mem- 
brane. 
When any liquor is evaporated in a gentle 
heat, till a pellicle arises at top, it is called 
an evaporation to a pellicle; wherein there 
is just liquor enough left, to keep the salts 
in fusion. 
PELT ARIA, a genus of the silfculosa. 
order, in the tetradynamia class of plants 
and in the natural method ranking under the 
39th order, siliquoste. The silicula is entire, 
and nearly orbiculated, compressed plane, 
and not opening. There are two species, 
herbs of the Cape. 
PELVIS, in anatomy, the lower part of 
the cavity of the abdomen, thus called from 
its resemblance to a bason, or ewer, in Latin 
called pelvis. See Anatomy. , 
PEN, fountain, is a pen made of silver, 
brass, Ac. contrived to contain a considerable 
quantity of ink, and let it How out by gentle 
degrees, so as to supply the writer a long 
time without being under the necessity of 
taking fresh ink. T he fountain-pen is com- 
posed of several pieces, as in the plate, 
where the middle piece F carries the pen, 
which is screwed into the inside of a little 
pipe, which again is soldered to another 
pipe of the same bigness as the lid G ; in 
which lid is soldered a male screw, for screw- 
ing on the cover, as also for stopping a little 
hole at the place, and hindering the ink 
from passing through it. At the other end 
of the piece F is a little pipe, on the outside 
of which the top-cover li may be screwed; 
In the cover there goes a port-crayon, which 
is to be screwed into the last-mentioned 
pipe, in order to stop the end of the pipe, 
into which the ink is to be poured by a tun- 
nel. r l o use the pen, the cover G must be 
taken off, and the pen a little shaken, to 
make the ink run more freely. 
PENANCE, in our canon law, is an ec- 
clesiastical punishment chiefly adjudged to 
the sin of fornication. The ’punishment is 
thus described by the canons : the delinquent 
is to stand in the church porch on some 
Sunday, bare-headed and barefoot, in a white 
sheet, with a white wand in his hand, be- 
wailing himself, and begging every one to 
pray for him ; then he is to enter the church, 
and falling down, is to kiss the ground ; and 
at last is to be placed on an eminence in the 
middle of the church, over against the minis- 
ter, who is to declare the foulness of his 
crime which is odious to God, and scanda- 
lous to the congregation. If the crime is 
not notorious, the canons allow the punish- 
ment to be commuted at the party’s request 
tor a pecuniary mulct, for the benefit of the 
poor, &c, 
