886 
THE PELICAN. 
Cormorants into partnership on these occasions ; the Pelican 
extending its wings and flapping the water, while the Cor- 
morant, diving below, drives the fish to the surface; and 
when, by their joint exertions, the shoal is driven into the 
shallows, and easily taken by the Pelicans, the Cormorant 
helps himself out of his companion’s wide pouch. The very 
respectable writer , # on whose authority we state this latter 
part, gives some further account of the concealment of their 
eggs, which, however extraordinary at first sight, is so well 
borne out by the instinctive habits of some other birds, that 
there is no reason for doubting its truth. He says, that if 
disturbed while sitting, they will hide their eggs in the water, 
taking them out with their hills when they believe the danger 
to he over. 
We can vouch for the fact of sea-birds feeding on fish, 
forced above the surface by the lower part of the shoal, 
having witnessed a singular scene off the Hebrides during the 
herring season. A whale of the smaller species (Delphinus 
deductor)\ was observed pursuing a shoal of herrings about 
half a mile off. The fish were evidently in a state of alarm, 
and it was equally evident that , a prodigious flight of Gulls, 
Gannets, and all the host of sea-birds, were aware of what 
might happen, as they hovered over the spot screaming, and 
now and then darting irregularly downwards to within a yard 
or two of the surface. As the whale closed upon the shoal, 
agitation seemed to increase, judging by the increased excite- 
ment of the birds above. His long black hack slowly rose, 
and disappeared as the huge animal rolled onwards, seldom 
descending so far below as to bury his hack-fin, which rippled 
along the surface; at length he was in the midst of them, and 
the confusion was complete. At one moment he disappeared 
altogether ; hut though unseen by us, it was very clear, by a 
momentary elevation of an actual mass of herrings above the 
* Dr. E. D. Clarke’s Travels. 
t The northern coasts were much frequented by this whale about 
that time ; at Kirkwall Bay, in Orkney, we saw the remains of no less 
than ninety -two, which had been recently driven on shore in a heavy 
gale. 
