[Illustration: PELICANS.]
All the Birds of the Pelican family are distinguished by having the hind
toe united to the others by a single membrane. Some of the group are
large and heavy Birds, but they are all gifted with powerful wings, and
they are, at the same time, good swimmers. Besides the Pelicans
themselves, we find in this family of Birds, the Tropic Bird, the
Darter, the Gannets and the Cormorants.
The Pelicans are large, heavy aquatic Birds, with great extent of wing
and are excellent swimmers; their haunts are the sea-coast, and the
banks of rivers, lakes, and marshes. Whenever a Fish betrays its
presence by leaping or flashing its glittering scales in the sun, the
Pelican will be seen sailing towards it.
This Bird has an appetite so insatiable and a stomach so capacious that,
in one day it devours as much food as would satisfy six men. The
Egyptians have nicknamed it the River Camel, because it can imbibe at
once more than twenty pints of water. Certainly it only makes two meals
a day; but, oh, what meals they are!
Pelicans often travel in large flocks, visiting the mouths of rivers or
favorite retreats on the sea-coast. When they have made choice of a
suitable fishing place, they arrange themselves in a wide circle, and
begin to beat the water with extended wing, so as to drive the Fish
before them, gradually diminishing the circle as they approach the shore
or some inlet on the coast. In this manner they get all the Fish
together into a small space, when the common feast begins.
After gorging themselves, they retire to the shore, where the process of
digestion follows. Some rest with the neck over the back; others busily
dress and smoothe their plumage, waiting patiently until returning
appetite invites them to fresh exertions. When thus resting,
occasionally one of these Birds empties his well-lined pouch, and
spreads in front of him all the Fish that it contains, in order to feed
upon them at leisure.
In spite of its great size, the Pelican flies easily and to considerable
distances. It does not dive but will occasionally dash down on Fish from
a considerable height, and with such force that it becomes submerged;
but its buoyancy instantly brings it again to the surface. It perches on
trees, but seems to prefer rocks.
The nest is generally formed of coarse, reedy grass, lined with softer
material and placed in the clefts of dry rocks near the water.
Occasionally they will lay in an indentation in the ground which they
have previously roughly lined with blades of grass.
The Pelican is more common in tropical regions than in temperate
climates. They are very numerous in Africa, Siam, Madagascar, the Sunda
Isles, the Philippines; and in the Western Hemisphere they abound from
the Antilles to the northern temperate part of the North American
continent. They haunt the neighborhood of rivers and lakes and the
sea-coast.
The best known species are—first, the Crested Pelican; second, the White
Pelican; third, the Brown Pelican; fourth, the Spectacled Pelican.