THE BROWN PELICAN. 
201 
brown, and its feathers are stiff and not downy as in the male. Weight 7 
lbs. 12 oz. 
Young. 
Bill greyish-blue, its edges and unguis greyish-yellow ; gular pouch dull 
greyish-blue. Iris brownish-yellow; bare space around the eye of a dusky 
bluish tint, the feathers margining it yellowish-white. The feathers of the 
head and neck are less downy than in the adult, and those on the sides of 
the latter less elongated or pointed. The head and neck are dark brown, 
as are the upper parts generally ; the secondary and many of the smaller 
coverts margined with pale brown ; the primaries and their coverts as well 
as the tail-coverts brownish-black, with white shafts. Feet and claws dull 
leaden colour. 
In an adult female preserved in spirits the general peculiarities of the 
organization are the same as those described in the American White Pelican. 
The Mangrove. 
Rhizophora Mangle, Linn., Syst. Nat., vol. ii. p. 325. 
The species of mangrove represented in the plate is very abundant along 
the coast of Florida and on almost all the Keys, excepting the Tortugas. 
Those islands which are named Wet Keys are entirely formed of mangroves, 
which, raising their crooked and slender stems from a bed of mud, continue 
to increase until their roots and pendent branches afford shelter to the accu- 
mulating debris, when the earth is gradually raised above the surface of the 
water. No sooner has this taken place than the mangroves in the central 
part of the island begin to decay, and in the course of time there is only an 
outer fringe or fence of trees, while the interior becomes overgrown with 
grass and low bushes. Meantime the mangroves extend towards the sea, 
their hanging branches taking root wherever they come in contact with the 
bottom, and their seeds also springing up. I am at a loss for an object with 
which to compare these trees, in order to afford you an idea of them ; yet if 
you will figure to yourself a tree reversed, and standing on its summit, you 
may obtain a tolerable notion of their figure and mode of growth. The stem, 
roots and branches are very tough and stubborn, and in some places the trees, 
are so intertwined that a person might find it as easy to crawl over them as 
to make his way between them. They are evergreen, and their tops afford 
a place of resort to various species of birds at all seasons, while their roots 
and submersed branches give shelter to numberless testaceous mollusca and 
small fishes. The species represented is rarely observed on the coast of 
Vol. VII.— 26 
