501 
PELECANUS. 
place not in fuch plenty as in fnany others. They are 
laid to make their nefts on trees, if any are within a pro¬ 
per diftance, otherwife on the rocks. They lay one or 
two eggs, of a flelh-colour, marked with crimfon fpots. 
This fpecies is reprefented at fig. z. 
10. Pelecanus minor, the fmaller frigate-pelican : tail 
forked ; body ferruginous ; bill and orbits red. It re- 
fembles the laft ; but is lefs, being only about three feet 
long. 
11. Pelecanus leucocephalus, the white-headed frigate- 
pelican : tail forked ; body brown ; head, neck, breaff, 
and belly, white 5 bill dufky, except at the tip, where it 
is nearly white; legs reddifh brown. Total length 
about three feet. This is in the Hunterian Mufeum. 
In the fame collection there is another very like it, with 
the head and half the neck all round white, palling on 
the fore part down the bread, and ending between the 
legs : fides of the body, and the vent, brown; which, as 
in the other, is the general colour of the reft of the plu¬ 
mage : legs reddiHi brown : middle toes ferrated. Nei¬ 
ther of thefe were bare on the fides of the head, nor had 
any appearance of a pouch on the under mandible. Not 
far different from the above is one mentioned by Ofbeck. 
In his bird the cere at the bafe of the bill (he fays) is 
blue, and extends to the eyes; the temples, or fides of 
the head, being naked : the tongue large, almoft trifid at 
the top ; the corner at the bottom fplit: the head, fore 
part of the neck, bread, and belly, white : the general 
colour of the reft of the plumage black : tail forked, 
giving the idea of a pair of fciflars: legs black. This he 
met with at the Ifleof Afcenfion, where it is very tame, 
and does not appear to be afraid of mankind. He fup- 
pofes it incapable of fifhing for itfelf, as he obferved it to 
be on the watch till fome other bird had caught a fifli ; 
which it immediately purfued, and obliged the fuccefs- 
ful captor to render up his prey. 
12. Pelecanus Palmerftonii, the Palmerfton frigate-pe¬ 
lican ; bill five inches and a half long, black; fpace 
round the eyes well feathered; body brown with a green- 
ifli glofs ; beneath white; vent black; tail forked; the 
Drafts of all the feathers white : legs dufky black; the 
middle claw ferrated on the infide. Inhabits the ifiand 
of Palmerfton, in the South Seas. It is in the collection 
of the late fir Jofeph Banks. Three feet two inches long. 
13. Pelecanus carbo, the cormorant, or corvorant : tail 
rounded; body black ; head fubcrefted. In Greek this 
bird was called < pethoiy.goKogu .%, or bald raven ; the Spanifn 
name, cuervo ca/vo, has the fame fignification ; and the 
notion of water or fea raven is implied in modern Latin, 
in Italian, in German, and Silefian, by the appellations of 
corvus aquaticus, corvo marino, u'aj]'er-rabe,J'ee-rabe. In 
fome of the French provinces it is ftyled crot-ppfcherot, 
or dirt-fifher. Dr. Kay, in Gel'ner, conjeCtures, that cor¬ 
morant is a corruption of corvorant, corvus vorans, or de¬ 
vouring raven ; and Pennant and Latham have adopted 
corvorant. The name was formerly pronounced cormo- 
ran or cormarin, contracted from corvus marinas, orfea- 
raven: yet it refembles the raven in nothing but its black 
plumage, and even this is downy, and of a lighter fliade. 
The cormorant is fo dextrous in fifhing, and fo vora¬ 
cious, that, when it vifits a pool, it commits alone more 
havoc than a whole flock of other pifcivorous birds. 
Fortunately, it refides almoft conftantly on the fea-fhores, 
and feldom occurs in inland countries. As it can re¬ 
main a long time plunged, and fwims under water with 
the rapidity of a dart, its prey fcarcely ever efcapes, and 
it almoft always emerges holding a fifh acrofs in its bill: 
to fwallow the victim it employs a fingular expedient; 
it tolTes up the fifh in the air, and dextroufly catches the 
head in falling, fo that the fins lie flat and favour the paf- 
fage down the the throat, while the membranous fkin 
that lines the under fide of its bill ftretches to admit the 
■whole body of the fifh, which is often very large in pro¬ 
portion to the neck of the bird. 
In fome countries, as in China, and formerly in Eng« 
3 
land, the fkill of the cormorant in fiftiing was turned to 
profit: for, by buckling a ring about the lower part of 
its neck, to prevent deglutition, and accuftoming it to 
return with its acquifitions in its bill to its mafter, it 
was made a domeftic fifher ; and this toil continued, 
till its mafter, fatisfied with the earnings, loofed its col¬ 
lar, and permitted it to fifh on its own account. Hunger 
alone gives activity to the cormorant; it becomes lazy 
and fluggifh after its appetite is glutted. It inclines to 
fat ; and, though it has a very ftrong fmell and an un- 
pleafant tafte, it is not always defpifed by failors, to whom 
the fimpleft and coarfell fare is often more delicious than 
the conrtant repetition of fait meat. 
Thefe birds are plentifully found in England, parti¬ 
cularly on the Needle and Frelhwater rocks, at the back 
of the Ifle of Wight: on Dover cliff’s, and on moft of 
our rocky fliores. They abound in many places of the 
old continent ; on the fliores of the Cafpian Sea they 
fometimes collect in immenfe flocks; and are frequent 
in the Lake Baikal; they inhabit the Cape of Good 
Hope ; and are common in the Philippine Ifles, New 
Holland, New Zealand, &c. They are found in many 
parts of the continent of America, being met with in 
Hudfon’s Bay, New' York, and from thence as low as 
Carolina : at the laft place they are feen in March and 
April, when the herrings run up the creeks, at which 
time they may be obferved fitting on the logs of wood 
which fall into the water, waiting for the pafling-by of 
the fifli. Our late navigators met with it in Nootka 
Sound. The cormorant is likewife very frequent on all 
the northern fliores, quite to Kamtfchatka : in Green¬ 
land it remains the whole year, and builds on the tops 
of the crags, laying three or more pale green eggs, the 
fize of thofe of a goofe; but thefe prove fo very fetid 
and difgufting, that the Greenlanders will fcarcely ever 
eat them. The fkin is very tough, and is ufed by the 
Greenlanders for garments; they alfo fometimes eat the 
flefh. The head of the cormorant is fenfibly flat, like 
that of moft diving birds; its eyes are placed very much 
forward, and near the corners of the bill, whofe fubftance 
is very hard, and ftiining like horn ; the feet are black, 
fliorf, and very ftrong; the middle nail is ferrated inte¬ 
riorly, like that of the heron ; the pinions are very long, 
but clothed with fliort quills, and hence it flies heavily. 
It makes its neft with flicks, fea-weed, grafs, &c. 
| 3 . P. c. criftatus, the crefted corvorant, is defcribed 
by Mr. Montagu in the Supplement to his Ornithologi¬ 
cal Dictionary. “ The poflelfion of this bird has given 
us much of its hiftory we were previoufly unacquainted 
with. It is extremely docile, and of a grateful difpofition, 
without the fmalleft tinCture of a favage or vindictive 
fpirit, and by no means poflefling the bad qualities a ce¬ 
lebrated writer would induce us to believe, by making it 
perfonify Satan. The bird in queftion was furprifed by 
a Newfoundland dog, belonging to a fifherman, under 
the banks of a rivulet that ran into the Britifh channel; 
it was taken home, and, not being in the accuftomed 
plumage, was reported to be a curious and unknown 
fpecies. When it had been made captive about a week, 
it was perfectly familiarized, making one in the family 
circle round the fire, and fuffering the cardies of the 
children, who were very unwilling to part with it. That 
mode, however, by which all earthly matters are obtain¬ 
ed, and by which kingdoms are loft and gained, fucceed- 
ed; and it was conveyed to us by the coach, being placed 
in a bafket. As foon as it arrived and was liberated, it 
followed the fervant who releafed it, and was offered 
every fort of food at hand, all of which was equally re¬ 
filled ; not even raw flefh was acceptable, and no fifli 
could then be procured to fatisfy its hunger. We there¬ 
fore crammed it with flefh, which was taken ,very reluc¬ 
tantly ; but, even with this rough handling, its formi¬ 
dable bill was not made ufe of oftenfively. After feed¬ 
ing, it was placed on a ltool, in an adjoining room to 
the library, where it fat perfectly contented, and adjufted 
its 
