PELEC ANUS. 499 
pelecanus and onocrotalus, the firft has milled the tranfla- 
tors of Ariftotle, and even Cicero and Pliny: they have 
rendered it by the word platea, which would confound 
the pelican with the fpoon-bill. When Ariftotle fays 
that the pelecanus fwallows thin (hell-filh, and cafts them 
up half digefted,in order to feparate the meat which they 
contain, he imputes it to a habit which agrees better 
with the fpoon-bill, confidering the ftrufture of its 
cefophagus; for the pouch of the pelican is not a fto- 
inach where digeftion is begun; and Pliny inaccurately 
compared the manner in which the onocrotalus fwallows 
and brings up its food, to the procefs carried on in ru¬ 
minating animals. “ There is nothing here,” M. Per- 
rault very judicioufly remarks, “but what enters into 
the general plan of the organization of birds s all of 
them have a craw in which their food is lodged ; in the 
pelican it lies without and under the bill, inftead of being 
concealed within, and placed at the bottom of the cefo¬ 
phagus. But this exterior craw has not the digeftive 
heat of that of other birds, and in this bag the pelican 
carries the fifti entire to its young. To difgorge them it 
prefl'es the pouch againft its breaft; and this very natural 
aft may have given rife to the fable fo generally told, 
that the pelican opens its breaft to nourilh its offspring 
with its blood. The pelican, as voracious as it is de- 
ftruftive, takes up in a tingle excurfion as many fith as 
would feaft half a dozen men. It fwallows eafily a fifli 
of feven or eight pounds: and we are told that it alfo 
eats rats and other fmall animals. Pifon fays, that he 
faw a kitten fwallowed alive by a pelican, which was fo 
familiar that it walked into the market; where the filher- 
men haftened to tie its bag, left it thould llily purloin 
fome of their fith. It eats with the fide of its moyth, 
and, when a perfon throws it a morfei, it fnaps at it. 
The pouch, in which it ftores all its captures, confifts of 
two tkins; the inner coat is continued from the mem¬ 
brane of the cefophagus, the outer is only a produftion 
of the tkin of the neck : the wrinkles in which it is 
folded ferve to contraft the bag, and when empty it be¬ 
comes flaccid. The bag of the pelican is ufed as a to¬ 
bacco-pouch; and, in the Weft-India iflands, is termed 
blague, or blade, from the word bladder. It is aflerted, 
that, when thefe are prepared, they are more beautiful 
and fofter than lamb-lkins. Some failors make caps of 
them; the Siamefe form mufical firings of the fubftance; 
and the filhermen of the Nile ufe thefac attached to the 
jaw as a fcoop for lading their boats, or for holding wa¬ 
ter ; as it neither rots with moifture nor can be penetrat¬ 
ed by it. 
This very large fpecies occupies the wmole of the an¬ 
nexed Plate. It is copied from Edwards’s Nat. Hift. of 
Birds, Part II. and we (hall tranfcribe alfo a part of his 
defcription of it. “ This bird feemed to me to be more 
than double the bignefs of the largeft fwan ; it meafured 
from the point of the bill to the angle of the mouth 
twenty inches of our Englilh meafure, which is fix in¬ 
ches more than any natural hiftorian has found it; the 
Academy of Paris having meafured one which was but 
fourteen inches, Paris meafure I fuppofe ; and our coun¬ 
tryman, Willoughby, meafured one brought from Ruf- 
fia, which he makes fourteen inches Englilh ; fo that I 
believe this bird of mine muft be proportionably bigger 
in all its parts than what have been before defcribed. I 
thought it fomething incredible in Willoughby’s de¬ 
fcription, that a man Ihould put his head into the pouch 
under the bill, till I faw it performed in this bird by its 
keeper; and am fure a fecond man’s head might have 
been put in with it at the fame time : indeed it is faid to 
be capable of holding twenty quarts of water. The 
upper mandible is ftraight and flat, having a ridge run¬ 
ning along its middle, and at the point a remarkable 
hook; the Ikin round the eye is bare of feathers, of a 
light flelh-colour; the noftrils are not perceivable; the 
eyes are of a dark hazel-colour. The lower part of the 
bill is compofed of two flexible fides, which it can open 
Vol. XIX. No. 1320. 
pretty wide, or draw together at pleafure ; thefe Tides are 
joined the whole length, except at the point, by a loofe 
Ikin of the confidence of thin tripe, of a yellowifh colour, 
which it can either draw up clofe to the bill, or let fall to 
a confiderable depth from it; this fkin extends itfelf un¬ 
der the throat; it hath rather the appearance of the root 
of a tongue than what may be called a tongue. When 
it extends its neck, it appears longer in proportion than 
reprefented in the figure, and fometimes it is drawn in 
ffiorter. This bird was brought from the Cape of Good 
Hope by captain Felly, in the India company’s fervice, 
anno 1745, who obliged me with a fight of it before it 
was expofed in London. I find no material difference 
between this and what has been defcribed by Willough¬ 
by, and the Academy of Paris, except its fize, fo that I 
cannot pronounce it fpecifically different from what has 
been defcribed before. The curious, who defire to ex¬ 
amine into the anatomy of this bird, may confult Mem. 
de l’Academie Royale des Sciences, 1666 to 1699. As 
no Englifti author hath given a tolerable figure of this 
bird, my hiftory in that refpeft will be new, as well as in 
its extraordinary magnitude, which all the curious in 
this city are witneffes of, it having been publicly fhown 
here.” 
2. Pelecanus rofeus, the rofe-coloured pelican : colour 
rofy; gullet pouched. The bill and legs are black; the 
area of the eyes is naked ; the pouch yellow. It is about 
the fize of a goofe ; and inhabits Manilla. 
3. Pelecanus fufcus, the brown pelican: cinereous 
brown ; gullet pouched. This is the American pelican 
of Edwards; he fays it is fomething larger than a full- 
fixed tame goofe, its length being nearly four feet. The 
bill is fhaped as in the firft fpecies, and is fifteen inches 
long; at the bafe it is greenilh, but inclines to blue 
mixed with red near the end : the pouch is of a bluifti- 
afli-colour, ftreaked with reddilh lines: irides deep 
bluilh-alh-colour: the bare Ikin round the eyes whitifh. 
The head and neck are white ; the firft a little crefted at 
the back part: back, fcapulars, and rump, cinereous 
brown; the middle of each feather whitifh : the breaft and 
tinder parts like the upper, but plain : the upper wing- 
coverts like the back ; but fome of the outer great ones 
are plain brown: the lhape of moft of the feathers is 
pointed, narrow, and long: prime quills black ; the fe- 
condaries hoary brown: tail the fame, and confifts of 
eighteen feathers: legs lead-colour: claws black. 
The brown pelican is very common in many parts of 
the coafts of America ; and no-where more fo than in 
the Weft-India iflands, Jamaica, Barbadoes, See. Alfo in 
the Bay of Campeachy, and as low as Cartbagena. In 
fummer it is found as far north as Hudfon’s Bay. 
Thefe birds are celebrated for a moft affeftionate attach¬ 
ment to the fick and maimed of their own fpecies, to 
whom they will conftantly carry a fupply of food ; a cir- 
cumftance which the Americans take advantage of to 
procure fiflr without trouble. They take a live pelican, 
break its wing, and, after tying it to a tree, conceal them- 
felves in the neighbourhood ; there they watch the 
coming of the other pelicans with their provifions, and, 
as foon as they fee thefe difeharge the fifli from their 
pouch, they run in, and, after leaving a little for the 
captive bird, carry off the refidue. 
4. Pelecanus Manillenfis, the Manilla pelican: this 
fpecies refembles the rofe-coloured pelican, except in 
the plumage being wholly of a brown colour. It inha¬ 
bits Manilla, where it is found in great abundance, mak¬ 
ing its neft on the ground, and feems very unwieldy 
while on land ; yet at times they fly very high. Their 
flelh is rank and bad. 
.5. Pelecanus Philippenfis, the Philippine pelican ; 
white ; creft varied"\vhite and brown ; gullet pouched. 
This is nearly four feet and a quarter in length; the bill 
fourteen inches long, the colour reddilh white, with a 
few fpots of brown on the fides of the upper mandible: 
the bare fpace round the eyes is of the colour of the 
6 M bill 5 
