rental uses. But the fact is, Pelicans are very heavy* 
sluggish, and voracious birds ; and possess no instincts 
but what are necessary for the preservation of the kind, 
and the supplying themselves with a sufficient quantity 
of food. However, they feed their young with macerate 
ed fish for a time, and tend them with affectionate assi- 
duity till they are able to provide for themselves. 
With all the seeming hebetude of the Pelican, it is 
not wholly incapable of receiving instruction in a re* 
claimed state. Father Raymond assures us, that he had 
seen oue so tame and well educated, that it would go off 
in the morning, at the word of command, and return 
before night to its master with its pouch full of plunder, 
part of which it would unload for the proprietor’s use 
and part it retained for its own sustenance. Gesner 
also tells us of a tame Pelican, the property of the em- 
peror Maximilian, which lived upwards of eighty years 
and always attended his army on the marchb 
One of those Pelicans, which was brought alive to the 
Duke of Bavaria’s court, where it lived forty years, 
seemed to possess very uncommon sensations. It was 
much delighted in the company and conversation of men, 
and in music, both vocal and instrumental. It would 
willingly stand, says lie, u by those that sung or sound- 
ed the trumpet ; and stretching out its head, and turn- 
ing its ear to the music, would listen very attentively t© 
its harmony, though its own voice was little better than 
the braying of an ass*’ ? 
