130 
natural history. 
they have raised themselves about thirty or forty feet above 
the surlace of the sea, they turn their head, with one eye 
downwards, and continue to fly in that posture. As soon 
as they perceive a fish sufficiently near the surface, they dart 
down upon it with the swiftness of an arrow, seize it with un- 
erring certainty, and store it up in their pouch. They then 
rise atrain, though not without great labour, and continue 
hovering and fishing, with their head on one side, as befoie. 
This work they continue, with great effort and industry, 
till their bag is full: and then fly to land, to devout and 
digest, at leisure, the fruits of their industry, lhis, how- 
ever, it would appear, they are not long performing ; lor, 
towards night, they have another hungry call ; and they 
ao-ain, reluctantly, go to labour. Their life is spent between 
sleeping and eating ; and they are as foul as they are vora- 
cious, as they are, every moment, voiding excrements in 
heaps, as large as one’s fist. The female makes no prepa- 
ration for her nest, nor seems to choose any place in prefer- 
ence to lay in, but drops her eggs on the bare ground, to 
the number of five or six, and there continues to hatch 
them. The flesh is not fit to eat. 
With all the seeming indolence of this bird, it is not en- 
tirely incapable of instruction in a domestic state. Father 
Raymond assures us, that he has seen one so tame and well 
educated among the native Americans, that it would go oft 
in the morning, at the word of command, and return before 
nio-ht to its master, with its great pouch distended with 
plunder; a part of which the savages would make it dis- 
gorge, and a part they would permit it to reserve for itself. 
“ & The pelican,” as Faber relates, “is not destitute of 
other qualifications. One which was brought alive to the 
Duke of Bavaria’s court, whence it lived forty years, seemed 
to be possessed of very uncommon sensations. It was much 
delighted in the company and conversation of men, and in 
music, both vocal and instrumental; for it would willingly 
stand (says he) by those that sung or sounded the tiumpet; 
and stretching out its head, and turning its ear to the music, 
listen very attentively to its harmony, though its^ own 
voice was little pleasanter than the braying of an ass.'’ 
Gessner tells us, that the emperor Maximilian had a (ame 
pelican, which lived for above eighty years, and which 
always attended his army on their march. 
The Frigate Pelican , or Man-of- War- Bird , is chiefly met 
with between the tropics. It is the size of a large fowl. The 
bill is slender, five inches long, from the base of which a dark 
