498 
PELECANUS. 
colour. It inhabits Afia, Africa, and South America. 
In fiftiing, this bird does not immediately fwallow its 
prey, but fills its bag, and returns to the (bore to devour 
at its leifure the fruits of its induftry. As it has a very 
quick digeftion, it has generally to fifii more than once in 
a day. At night it retires to reft, a little way on the 
fhore, with its head refting on its bread. In this ftate it 
remains almoft motionlefs, till hunger calls it to break its 
repofe. It then flies from its refting-place, and, raifing it- 
felf thirty or forty feet above the furface of the fea, turns 
its head with one eye downwards, and continues to fly in 
that pollute till it lees a filh Sufficiently near the furface, 
when it darts down with aftoniflting fwiftnefs, Seizes it 
with unerring certainty, and ftores it up in its pouch. 
It then riSes again, and continues the Same manoeuvres, 
till it has procured a competent ftock. The female feeds 
her young with fifli, macerated a long time in her bag. 
The pelican generally builds in marffiy and uncultivated 
places, particularly in iflands and lakes, making its neft, 
which is deep, a foot and a half in diameter, of carices, 
and lining it with grafs of a fofter texture. It lays two 
or more white eggs, which, when haraffed, it Sometimes 
hides in the water. When it builds in dry and defert 
places, it brings water to its young. It walks flowly, 
flies in flocks, and lives in Society with other birds. 
This Singular fowl appears fufceptible of Some educa¬ 
tion, and even of a certain cheerfulnefs, notwithftanding 
its reclufe life. It has nothing Savage, but Soon becomes 
familiar with man. Rzaczynfki Speaks of a pelican kept 
fourteen years at the court of Bavaria, which was very 
fond of company, and Seemed to take Singular pleafure in 
hearing mufic. Belon Saw one in the ifle of Rhodes, 
which walked freely through the town ; and Culmann, 
in Gefner, relates the noted ftory of the pelican which 
followed the emperor Maximilian, flying over the head 
of his army when on a march, and riling Sometimes So 
liigh as to (eem like a Swallow, though it meafured fifteen 
feetacrofs the wings. This vaft power of flight would 
be aftonifliing in a bird that weighs twenty-four or twen¬ 
ty-five pounds, were it not wonderfully aflifted by the 
great quantity of air with which its body is inflated, and 
alfo by the lightnefs of its fkeleton, which exceds not a 
pound and a half; its bones are So thin, that they are 
iomevvhat transparent, and Aldrovandus aflerts that they 
have no marrow. It is no doubt owing to the nature 
of thefe Solid parts, which are flow in offifying, that the 
pelican enjoys its great longevity : even in captivity it 
has been obferved to live longer than moft other birds. 
Turner Speaks of a tame pelican that lived fifty years. 
The one mentioned by Culmann attained the age of four- 
lcore; and in its latter years it was maintained by order 
of the emperor, at the expenfe of four crowns a-day. 
The pelican, though not entirely foreign, is very rare 
in our climates : one was killed in England, at Horfey- 
fen, in May 1663, which meafured twelve feet from tip 
to tip of the wings ; and two were killed in France ; one 
in Dauphiny, and the other on the Saone. Gefner Speaks 
of one that was taken on the lake of Zurich, and was re¬ 
garded as an unknown bird. It is not common in the 
north of Germany, though great numbers occur in the 
Southern provinces watered by the Danube: this noble 
river was an ancient haunt of thefe birds ; for Ariftotle, 
ranging the pelicans with fome gregarious kinds, the 
crane and the Swan, Says, that “they depart from the 
Strymon, and, waiting for each other at the paflagoof 
the mountains, they all alight together, and neltle on 
the banks of the Danube.” Thefe dreams, therefore, 
Seem to bound the countries where thefe flocks advance 
from north to fouth in our continent; and Pliny mull 
have been ignorant of this route, when he reprefen ted 
them as coming from the northern extremity of Gaul ; 
for they are ftrangers there, and ftill more in Sweden and 
the ardtic tra&s, at leaft if we judge from the Silence of 
Linnaeus, Muller, &c. They are found in Red Ruffia, 
and in Lithuania, as well as in Volhinia, in Podolia, and 
in Pokutia, as Rzaczynfki teftifies: but they extend not 
to the moft northern parts of Mufcovy, as Ellis pretends, 
In general, thefe birds feem to aftedl more the warm than 
the cold climates. One of the largeft fize, weighing twen¬ 
ty-five pounds, was killed in the ifland of Majorca, near 
the bay of Alcudia, in June 1773. They appear regu¬ 
larly every year on the lakes of Mantua and Orbitello ; 
and from a paffage of Martial we may infer that they 
were common in the territory of Ravenna. They are 
found alfo in Afia Minor, in Greece, and in many parts 
of the Mediterranean and the Propontis. Belon even 
obferved at fea their paffage between Rhodes and Alex¬ 
andria; they flew in bodies from north to fouth, ffiaping 
their courfe towards Egypt: and the fame traveller en¬ 
joyed a Second time this fight near the confines of Arabia 
and Paleftine. Voyagers alfo tell us, that the lakes of 
Judea and of Egypt, the banks of the Nile in winter, and 
thofe of the Strymon in fummer, Seen from the heights, 
appear whitened by the multitude of pelicans which cover 
them. 
When we collefl the teftimonies of the various navi¬ 
gators, we fee that the pelicans inhabit all the louthern 
countries of our continent, and that they occur, with 
little difference, and in ftill greater numbers, in the cor¬ 
responding parallels in the new world. They are very 
common in Africa, on the Sides of the Senegal, and of the 
Gambia, where the negroes call them po/iko: the great 
tongue of land, which bars the mouth of the fir ft of thefe 
rivers, is filled with them. They are found likewife at 
Loango, and on the coafts of Angola, of Sierra Leone, 
and of Guinea : in the bay of Saldana they are inter¬ 
mingled with a multitude of birds, which feem, on that 
flrore, to fill the air and the lea. They occur at Mada¬ 
gascar, at Siam, in China, at the ifle of Sunda, and at the 
Philippines, especially on the filheries of the great lake of 
Manilla, They are Sometimes met with at lea ; and they 
have been Seen on the remote lands in the Indian ocean, 
and at New Holland, where captain Cook Says they are 
extremely large. Captain Keeling alfo, in his voyage to 
Sierra Leone, Says the pelicans there are of a white co¬ 
lour, with exceeding long bills ; and M. Thevenot, in 
his travels to the Levant, obferves, that the pelicans 
about fome part of the Nile, near the Red Sea, Swim by 
the bank-fide like geefe, in Such great numbers that they 
cannot be counted. Father Morolla, in his voyage to 
Congo, Says pelicans are often met with in the road to 
Singa, and are all over black, except on their breaft, 
which is of a flefh-colour like the neck of a turkey. He 
adds further, that father Francis de Pavia informed him, 
that on his journey to Singa he obferved certain large 
white birds, with long beaks, necks, and feet, which, 
whenever they heard the leaft found of an inftrument, 
began immediately to dance, and leap about the rivers, 
where they always refide, and whereof they were great 
lovers : this, he Said, he took a great pleafure to contem¬ 
plate, and continued often upon the banks of the river 
to obferve. 
In America, the pelican is found from the Antilles 
and Terra Firma, the ifthmus of Panama, and the bay of 
Campeachy, as far as Louifiana, and the country adjoin¬ 
ing to HudSon’s bay. They are Seen alfo on the inha¬ 
bited ifles and inlets near St. Domingo; and in greater 
numbers on thofe Small ifles, clothed with the fineft ver¬ 
dure, which lie in the vicinity of Guadaloupe, and which 
Seem to be occupied as the retreat of different Species of 
birds : one of thefe ifles has even been called the Ifle of 
Pelicans. They augment alfo the flocks of birds which 
inhabit the ifland of Aves: the coaft of the Sambales, 
which abounds with fiffi, attracts them in great numbers : 
in that of Panama, they are Seen to alight in bodies on 
the fhoals of pilchards left at Spring tides; and all the 
adjacent iflets are to Such a degree covered with thefe 
birds, that their fat is melted for oil. They ftray little 
from the coafts ; and, when met with at fea, it is regarded 
as a Sign of the proximity of land. Of the two names 
