SALT-MARSHES OF WEST JUTLAND. 
319 
and gulls, ducks, terns, and waders in charming variety. 
Avocets hovered overhead or dotted each marsh-pool 
and channel, along with Sheld-ducks, Curlews, and 
Oyster-catchers; Ruffs had numerous “ stands;” Reeves, 
Red-shank and Ring-dotterel (three kinds) in scores 
and hundreds; Terns, Peewits and Dunlins in thousands, 
coursed over the level plain or barely fluttered out of 
our way. 
From the extreme point of the tipperen (salt-spit), 
we at once noticed, on a sandbank five hundred yards 
to seaward, amidst a clamorous crowd of grey geese and 
gulls, eight huge white birds. 
“ Swans,” I said at once, for they were ten times 
bigger than the gulls, and dwarfed the geese that sat 
hard by. “No, not swans,” said Kristian, who spoke 
a few words of English—“ the swans have all gone 
weeks ago ; those are Pelicans! ” Pelicans ! it seemed 
incredible, though corroborated by the men who lived 
out here in some wooden huts, in charge of the govern¬ 
ment reclamation works, and who told us that, though 
pelicans did not come every year, the eight before us 
had been there for some time. They further described 
the pelicans as living on fish, and said they were yellow 
on the breast and had a long crest of feathers behind the 
head—which two features correspond with Pelecanus 
onocrotalus. There being no boat, a nearer approach 
was impossible, and we contented ourselves with a long 
survey through the binoculars. At the distance it was 
impossible to distinguish details; we could, however, 
distinctly see their enormous size, long necks, and black 
primaries, as well as the huge spread of their goose-like 
wings. See plate facing p. 20. 
