PELECANUS. 
3nd yet the ftupid flock will make no effort to efcape. 
Hence thefe birds are called boobies becaufe of their great 
ftupidity, their filly afpeft, and their habit of continually 
Shaking their head and fliivering as it were when they 
alight. And, fince the mental powers and the moral qua¬ 
lities cf animals are derived from their conftitution, we 
mud: attribute the exceflive fluggifhnefs and helplefs fe- 
curity of the boobies to fome phyfical caufe; and this, 
in oft probably, is the difficulty of putting their long 
wings in motion. 
Man is not their only foe; their want of courage ex¬ 
poses them to another enemy, which perpetually harafles 
them. This is the frigate, or man-of-war bird. It rufhes 
upon the boobies, which it defcries at a diftance ; purfues 
them without intermiffion, and obliges them, by blows 
with its wings and its bill, to furrender their prey, which 
it inllantly feizes and fwallows : the filly creatures then 
return to feek new prey, which they often lofe by a fe- 
cond piracy. The boobies hover above the furface of the 
water, fcarcely moving their wings, and drop on the fiffi 
the inftant it emerges. Their flight, though rapid and 
well fupported, is greatly inferior to that of the frigate. 
Accordingly, they do not roam fo far, and their appear¬ 
ance is regarded by navigators as a pretty certain fign 
of the vicinity of fome land. Yet thefe birds frequent the 
remoteft and moll fequeftered iflands in the midft of the 
ocean. There they live in companies, with the gulls, the 
tropic-birds, &c. and the frigate, their inveterate foe, 
follows them to thefe retreats. Dampier gives a curious 
account of the hoftilities between the man-of-war birds 
and the boobies, in the Alcrane iflands, on the coaft of 
Yucatan. “Thefe birds were crowded fo thick, that I 
could not,” he fays, “ pafs their haunt without being in¬ 
commoded by their pecking. I obferved that they were 
ranged in pairs, which made me prefume that they were 
male and female. When I (truck them, fome flew away, 
but the greater number remained, and w'ould not ftir for 
all I could do to roufe them. I remarked alfo, that the 
man-of-war birds and the boobies always placed fentinels 
over their young, efpecially when they went to fea for 
provifion. Of the man-of-war birds, many were fick or 
maimed, and feemed unfit to procure their fubfiftence. 
They lived not with the reft of their kind, whether they 
were expelled from the fociety, or had feparated from 
choice : thefe were difperfed in different places, probably 
that they might have a better opportunity of pillaging. 
I once faw more than twenty on one of the iflands (ally 
out from time to time into the open country, to carry off 
booty, and they returned again almoft immediately. 
When one furprifed a young booby that had no guard, 
he gave it a violent peck on the back to make it difgorge, 
which it inllantly did : it caft up one or two fiffi about 
the bulk of one’s hand, which the old man-of-war bird 
fwallowed dill more haftily. The vigorous ones play the 
fame game with the old boobies which they find at fea. 
I faw one which flew agninft a booby, and, with one ftroke 
of its bill, made him deliver up a fiffi which he had juft 
fwallowed. The man-of-war bird darted fo rapidly as to 
catch it in the air before it could fall into the water.” 
The boobies referable mod the cormorants in their 
fnape and organization, except that their bill is not termi¬ 
nated in a hook, but in a point (lightly curved ; and the 
upper mandible is articulated, as it were, and formed of 
three pieces joined by tw'o futures ; the firft is traced near 
the point, which therefore appears like a detached nail; 
the fecond is lituated at the root of the bill near the 
head, which enables the bird to raife the tip of its upper 
mandible two inches, without opening the bill. 
Thefe birds utter a loud cry, partaking of the raven 
and of the goofe ; and this is heard particularly when 
they are purfued by the frigate, or when, affembled to¬ 
gether, they are feized by fome fudden panic. In flying 
they ftretch out the neck, and difplay the tail. They 
cannot begin their motion but from fome lofty ltation,and 
505 
therefore they perch like cormorants. Dampier remarks* 
that in the ifle of Aves they breed on trees,-though in 
other places they neftle on the ground, and always a num¬ 
ber in the fame haunt; for a community, not of inftinfifc 
but of weakr.efs, feems to colleft them together. They 
lay only one or two eggs. The young ones continue 
long covered, for the molt part, by a very foft and white 
down. The common booby is fometimes met with on the 
Britifn fliores. It is of a middle fize, between the duck 
and the goofe: its length, from the end of the bill to that 
of the tail, is two feet five inches; the bill is four inches 
and a half, and its tail near ten. The naked flcin which 
encircles the eye is yellow, and fo is the bafe of the bill, 
whole point is brown. The legs are draw-coloured. The 
fleffi is black, and has a marffiy flavour ; yet the failors 
and marine adventurers often feed on it. Dampier re¬ 
lates, that a French fleet, being caft on the ifle of Aves, 
partly fubfiiled on thefe birds ; and made fuck confump- 
tion of them, that the number there has fince been much 
diminilhed. They are found in great numbers not only 
on the ifle of Aves, but in that ot Remire, and on a rock 
(haped like a fugar-loaf, rifing apart in the fea, within 
fight of Cayenne. Multitudes alfo occur on the iflets 
which lie along the fliores of New Spain and Caracca. 
The fame fpecies is met with on the coaft of Brazil, and 
on the Bahama iflands, where, it is afferted, they lay and 
breed every month of the year. What makes thefe birds 
fo extremely numerous on thole (bores, is the incredible 
fwarms of fifli which attract them : a perfon can fcarce let 
down into the water a line with twenty or thirty hooks, 
but he finds, on drawing it up, a fifli hanging from each. 
This harmlefs helplefs creature is reprefented on Plate 
II. fig. +. 
30. Pelecanus fiber, the brown booby: body browniffi, 
quill-feathers blackifii, face red; tail wedged. Bigger 
than a mallard : length two feet or more; bill three in¬ 
ches and three quarters; that and the legs red. It inha¬ 
bits Cayenne, and other parts of America, as well as l’e- 
veral of the Weft-lndia iflands; and is found alfo in 
Africa. 
31. Pelecanus maculatus, the fpotted booby: brown, 
fpotted with white ; below, white waved and fpotted with 
brown ; bill, wing-quills, tail, and feet, brown. In this 
fpecies, the wings are remarkably fliort, much more fo 
than in any other of the known fpecies. It inhabits 
Cayenne. Turton makes it a variety of the P. baffanus. 
32. Pelecanus parvus, the little booby. This is the 
fmalleft of the boobies, and meafures in length lcarcely 
eighteen inches. The bill is pretty ftraight; and the 
(pace round the eye not bare; the throat, breaft, and 
belly, white; all the reft of the plumage duficy black. 
This alfo inhabits Cayenne. 
33. Pelecanus Sinenfis, the leu-tze, or Chinefe filbing- 
corvorant: tail rounded ; body brown, beneath whitiffi 
fpotted with brown; throat white, bill yellow, irids blue. 
Inhabits China, and is there tamed for the purpofe of 
catching fiffi. On a large lake, near that part of the Im¬ 
perial Canal where the river runs into it, fir GeorgeStaun- 
ton faw “ thoufands of frnall boats and rafts built entirely 
for this fpecies of fifhery. On each boat (land ten or a 
dozen birds, which at a fignal from the owner plunge 
into the water; and it is aftonifliing to fee the enormous 
fize of the fi(h which thefe birds bring up. They appear¬ 
ed to be fo well trained, that it did not require either 
ring or cord about their throats, to prevent them from 
fwallowing any portion of their prey, except what the 
mailer was pleafed to return to them for encouragement 
and food. The boat ufed for this mode of filhing is re¬ 
markably light, and is carried on the (boulder to the lakes, 
together with the fifhing-birds, by thofe who gain a live¬ 
lihood by this employment.” 
PELECHU'CHO, a town of Peru, in the diocefe of 
Cufco: thirty-fix miles north-north-weft of Caravava. 
PELECl'NUS, J\ in botany. See Biserrula. 
PELE'E, 
3 
