500 
PELECANUS. 
bill: the pouch is very pale. The head and neck are 
whitifti : from the hind head to the back is a ftripe of 
feathers fomewhat longer than the reft, mixed white and 
brown; thofe of the hind head (till longer, fo as to form 
a creft ; the feathers of all thefe parts are very foft and 
ftiky. The upper part of the back and fcapulars cine¬ 
reous grey ; the lower part of the neck, the breaft, the 
lower part of the back, and rump, while : the wing-co¬ 
verts cinereous grey, with the fhafts and margins white; 
the outer greater ones, and baftard wings, darker, almoft: 
black: quills dufky black; the bafe of many of the fe- 
eondaries white: tail compofed of eighteen feathers, co¬ 
lour greyilh white; all but the two middle ones white on 
the inner webs at the bafe; fhafts black : legs red. This 
inhabits the Philippine iflands, and is probably the bird 
known there by the name of alcatraz. The natives fay 
that the (kin of the breaft, drelfed with the feathers on, 
has a fweet fmell; and, being worn on the ftomach of any 
one afflifted with the afthma, proves a remedy for the 
fame. 
6. Pelecanus rubefcens, the red-backed pelican : co¬ 
lour reddifh ; head crefted ; tail dufky ; gullet pouched. 
Length five feet; bill thirteen inches, of a* pale dirty 
yellow; reaches eight inches down the neck. The 
hind-head is crefted, fome of the feathers four inches in 
length. The head and neck dirty reddifh white; the 
back of a fine pale cinnamon colour: the wing-coverts 
are like the neck, but darker : fcapulars pale greyifh lead- 
colour. The legs are yellow. This bird was brought 
to England by Mr. Lewis, a navy-furgeon, who had it 
alive from the governor of one of our forts on the gold- 
coaft in Africa, where it had been kept tame for a long 
time, and was reckoned a fcarce bird. Like others of its 
race, it was very voracious : an experiment was tried how 
many fiflt it could take into the bill, and numbers of dif¬ 
ferent fizes were laid before the bird on the ground: it 
firft attempted to take up one of ten pounds, but the bill 
would by no means raife it from the ground; it then 
picked, up as far as ten of the others, each weighing a 
pound, and flowed them carefully in the bag, arranging 
them along-fide each other, with the heads towards 
the throat; and after this it walked off very ftately, 
with the bag hanging down to its feet. The pouch 
held about two gallons of water. 
7. Pelecanus Carolinenfis, the Charleftown pelican : 
dufky above, white on the breaft and belly; guiiet 
pouched. Thefe abound in the bay of Charleftown in 
America, where they are continually fifhing. Two fpe- 
cirnens of birds fimilar to the above, if not the fame, are 
in the Hunterian Mufeurn. The fize conefponds : length 
four feet; bill thirteen inches long, and differs from 
many in having that part of the upper mandible w-hich is 
next the bafe almoft cylindrical, and not flat, though 
fpreading out confidenjbly near the end : the lower half 
of the back, in one fpecimen, itriped black and dufky 
white ; the feathers narrow, and edged with the lall 
colour: in the other, the back is of a plain colour. 
The bag is of an enormous fize, taking up the greateft 
part of the neck before; at the hind part of it, the fea¬ 
thers are much longer than the reft ; yet neither the nape 
of the neck, nor back part of the head, were at all crefted. 
Thefe were brought from Cayenne. 
3 . Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, the rough-billed peli¬ 
can : white, hind-head crefted; gullet pouched. The 
fize of this fpecies is between a goofe and afwan : length 
four feet fix inches; bill thirteen inches, with the addi¬ 
tion of fome lingular protuberances on the top of the 
upper mandible, from the bafe of which, for above feven 
inches, the furface is plane, as in other pelicans: at this 
part an elevated ridge begins, of about an inch and a 
half in height, and one-third of an inch in thicknefs ; 
this continues about an inch and a half on the bill, and 
then other fmaller ones rife, of different fizes, and conti¬ 
nue growing fmaller, in an abrupt manner, to the end of 
the bill. The colour of the bill and ridge is reddifh 
yellow, here and there inclining to red : the under man¬ 
dible and pouch as in other fpecies; but on each fide, 
about the middle of the firft, is a fmall black fpot; and 
the bag is ftreaked with lines of black, which are pretty 
numerous on the fore part of it, moflly fo next the end 
of the bill. The plumage of the bird is wholly of a pure 
white, except the greater quills, which are black: at the 
hind head the feathers are greatly elongated, forming a 
creft of four inches and a half in length: the legs are 
black. This fpecies is found in feveral parts of America, 
having been feen at New York and in South Carolina. 
It is by fome confidered as a variety of the large white 
pelican ; but it is a much fmaller and more delicate bird. 
It is repr'efented on Plate II. at fig. 1. 
9. Pelecanus aquilus, the frigate-pelican, or man-of- 
war bird : tail forked; body ferruginous, orbits black; 
bill red ; belly of the female white. It is three feet 
long; the extent of the wings is full fourteen feet. The 
bill is flender, five inches long, and much curved at the 
point; colour dufky ; from the bafe a reddifti dark-co¬ 
loured tkin fpreads on each fide of the head, taking in 
the eyes. From the under mandible hangs the pouch, 
which is attached fome way down the throat; the colour 
of this is a fine deep red, fprinkled on the fides with a 
few fcattered feathers; and when dilated, and refting on 
the breaft, really looks as if it was pundtured and run¬ 
ning with blood, from whence the fabulous notion of 
tearing open its bofom to feed its young might mod 
eafily have been taken. 
The whole plumage is brownifh black, exceptthe wing- 
coverts, which have a rufous tinge. The tail is long, 
and much forked : the outer feathers eighteen inches or 
more in length ; the middle ones from feven to eight: 
the legs are fmall, all the toes webbed together, and the 
webs deeply indented ; the colour of them dufky red. 
The frigate pelican, or man-of-war bird, is chiefly, if 
not wholly, met with between the tropics, conftantly out 
at fea, being only feen on the wing. It is ufual with 
other birds, when fatigued with flying, to reft on the 
furface of the water; but nature, from the exceeding 
length of wing ordained to this, has made the rifing there¬ 
from utterly impoffible ; at leaft writers not only inform 
us, but every one who has particularly noticed them avers 
the fame ; though perhaps this is no defedt of nature, as 
it fcarcely feems to require much reft; at lead, from the 
length of wing, and its apparent eafy gliding motion 
(much like that of the kite), itrappears capable of fuf- 
taining very long flights ; for it is often feen above an 
hundred, and not unfrequently above two hundred, 
leagues from land. It has indeed been known to fettle 
on the mafts of fhips ; but this is not a frequent circum- 
flance, though it will often approach and hover about 
the top-maft flag. Sometimes it foars fo high as to be 
fcarcely vifible, and at other times approaches the furface 
of the fea, where, hovering at fome diftance, the moment 
it efpies a filh, it darts dowm on if with the utmoft ra¬ 
pidity, feldom without fuccefs, flying upwards again as 
quick as it defcended. It is alio feen to attack other 
birds which have caught a fiflt, when it obliges them to 
difgorge it, and takes care to feize, it before it falls into 
the water. It is an enemy to the flying-fifh; for, on 
their being attacked by the dolphin, and other voracious 
enemies in the fea, thefe femi-volatiles leap out of the 
water in clufters ; and during their flight the frigate darts 
in among them, and feizes one or two. 
Thefe birds, though not uncommon every-where with¬ 
in the tropics, yet are lefs frequent in fome places than 
in others. They w ! ere feen by Cook in 30^ degrees. In 
the old route of navigators they are mentioned frequent¬ 
ly, as being met with at Afcenfion Ifland, Ceylon, Eaft 
Indies, and China. Dampier faw them in great plenty 
in the ifland of Aves in the Weft Indies. Our later na¬ 
vigators defcribe them as frequenting various places of 
the South Sea, about the Marquefas, Eafter Ifles, and 
New Caledonia 5 alfo at Otaheite, though at this laft 
place 
