2 10 
aij.rn’s naturat.tst’s library. 
Nest. — 'I'he present species does not build a nest of its own, 
but adapts the old nest of a Crow or Rook to its wants. 
Eggs — The British Museum possesses so few eggs of this 
species that I am not able to describe them at length. They 
appear to resemble some of the eggs of the Common Kestrel 
so closely, as to be practically inseparable. According to Mr. 
Goebel, who has taken numbers of the eggs of C. vespertina in 
Southern Russia, they are not so coarsely grained as those of 
the Common Kestrel, have much less lustre, and are, on an 
averag.', smaller, and not only absolutely, but proportionately 
lighter. The colour of our Kestrels’ eggs is a darker, browner 
red compared with the yellower red of C. vespertina. Axis, 
i'25-i' 6 inch; diam., l o-ra. 
THE PELICAN-LIKE BIRDS. 
ORDER PELECANIFORMES. 
Tropic Birds {Phaetontes), Frigate Birds {Fregati), Pelicans, 
Cormorants, and Gannets — these are the groups of birds 
which constitute the large order Pelecaniformes. 'Phese birds 
have also been united together under the heading of Stegano- 
podes, all of them having the hallux, or hind-toe, united to the 
second by a web, so that, in fact, all four toes are connected by 
a membrane. 
THE PELICANS. SUB-ORDER PELECANI. 
The memhers of this Sub-order are easily recognised by 
their peculiar bills and large gular pouches, which are capable 
of distension to an enormous extent. A Pelican is a tropical 
bird and seldom wanders far north, though recently some of 
these birds are said to have been noticed in West Jutland. The 
White Pelican {P. onocrotahis) used at one time to inhabit 
England, as its bones have been found in the fens of Norfolk, and 
Montagu mentions the shooting of a Pelican at Horsey Fen 
in 1663, but this was believed to have been one of the King’s 
birds e.scaped from St. James’ Park. The species can, there- 
fore, scarcely be said to require notice in the present Work, 
and, indeed, Mr. Howard Saunders does not even mention 
it in his “ Manual.” 
