196 
THE BROWN PELICAN. 
At all periods the Brown Pelican keeps in flocks, seldom amounting to 
more than fifty or sixty individuals of both sexes, and of different ages. 
At the approach of the pairing time, or about the middle of April, the old 
males and females separate from the rest, and remove to the inner keys or 
to large estuaries, well furnished with mangroves of goodly size. The 
young birds, which are more numerous, remain along the shores of the open 
sea, unless during heavy gales. 
Now let us watch the full grown birds. Some skirmishes have taken 
place, and the stronger males, by dint of loud snappings of their bill, some 
hard tugs of the neck and head, and some heavy beats with their wings, 
have driven away the weaker, which content themselves with less prized 
belles. The females, although quiet and gentle on ordinary occasions, are 
more courageous than the males, who, however, are assiduous in their 
attentions, assist in forming the nest, feed their mates while sitting, and 
even share the labour of incubation with them. Now see the mated birds, 
like the citizens of a newly laid out town in some part of our western 
country, breaking the dry sticks from the trees, and conveying them in their 
bills to yon mangrove isle. You see they place all their mansions on the 
south-west side, as if to enjoy the benefit of all the heat of that sultry 
climate. Myriads of mosquitoes buzz around them, and alight on the 
naked parts of their body, but this seems to give them no concern. Stick 
after stick is laid, one crossing another, until a strong platform is con- 
structed. Now roots and withered plants are brought, with which a basin 
is formed for the eggs. Not a nest, you observe, is placed very low ; the 
birds prefer the tops of the mangroves, although they do not care how many 
nests are on one tree, or how near the trees are to each other. The eggs, 
of which there are never more three, are rather elliptical, and average 
three inches and one-eighth in length, by two inches and one-eighth in 
their greatest breadth. The shell is thick and rather rough, of a pure 
white colour, with a few faint streaks of a rosy tint, and blotches of a very 
pale hue, from the centre towards the crown of the egg. 
The young are at first covered with cream-coloured down, and have the 
bill and feet disproportionately large. They are fed with great care, and so 
abundantly, that the refuse of their food, putrid and disgusting, lies in great 
quantities round them ; but neither young nor old regard this, however offen- 
sive it may.be to you. As the former grow the latter bring larger fish to 
them. At first the food is dropped in a well macerated state into their 
extended throats ; afterwards the fish is given to them entire ; and finally the 
parent birds merely place it on the edge of the nest. The young increase 
in size at a surprising rate. When half fledged they seem a mere mass of 
fat, their partially indurated bill has acquired considerable length, their 
