The Pelican's Bath . 
289 
those sea-birds which the Portugalls call pelicans, which are white, 
and as bigge as geese, and those abound in this country also.” 
(Purclias, vol. ii. p. 983.) 
In the second voyage to the West Indies made by 
Mr., afterwards Sir, John Hawkins, 1564, mention is made 
of the flamingo :— 
“ For the fowle of the fresh rivers [in Florida] these two I noted to be 
the chiefe: whereof the flemengo is one, having all red feathers, and 
long red legs like a heme, a necke according to the bill, red, whereof 
the upper neb hangeth an inch over the nether.” {Hakluyt, vol. iii. 
p. 617.) 
As an instance of how long the fabulous element in 
natural history lingers, in a treatise on animals, published 
so lately as the end of the last century, this extraordinary 
statement deserves notice :— 
“Wild animals come to the pelican’s nest to drink the water 
which the parent bird brings in a sufficient quantity to last for many 
days. She carries the water in her pouch, and pours it into the nest to 
refresh her young ones, and to teach them to swim.” 
The name alcatrazi, sometimes given by the Spaniards 
to the pelican, is bestowed by Sir Richard Hawkins, in his 
account of a voyage to the South Seas in 1593, on an 
allied species, the tropic bird. He writes:— 
“ The alcatrace is a sea-fowle, different to all that I have seene, either 
on the land, or in the sea. His head like unto the head of a gull, but 
his bill like unto a snites bill, somewhat shorter, and in all places 
alike. He is almost like to a heronshaw, his legs a good spanne long, 
his wings very long, and sharpe towards the points, with a long taile 
like to a pheasant, but with three or foure feathers onely, and these 
narrower. He is all blacke, of the colour of a crow, and of little flesh ; 
for hee is almost all skinne and bones, bee soareth the highest of any 
fowle that I have seene, and I have not heard of any, that have seene 
them rest in the sea.” (Purclias, vol. iv. p. 1376.) 
The tropic bird, well known to travellers, is about the 
size of the common gull. The long tail feathers, here 
noticed, equal in length the rest of the bird. It is 
u 
