The Crested Pelican in common with the White Pelican, inhabits the
southeast of Europe and Africa, and is also found in Hungary, Dalmatia,
Greece, the Crimea, and the Ionian Islands, as well as in Algeria, and,
according to some authors, it is frequently met with in China.
It has white plumage, with the exception that the ends of the feathers
of the back and wings are black. The feathers of the head and upper part
of the neck are twisted up so as to form a large tuft or crest, hence
the name it bears. Its European home is principally the marshes round
the Black Sea.
Of their modes of life travelers in those regions give very interesting
descriptions.
“Nowadays,” says W. H. Simpson, “a solitary individual may be seen
fishing here and there throughout this vicinity; the remnant have
betaken themselves to the neighboring islands. Here, towards the end of
February last, the community constituted a group of seven nests—a sad
falling off from the year before, when thirty-four nests were grouped
upon a neighboring islet.
“As we approached the spot in a boat the Pelicans left their nests, and
taking to the water, sailed away like a fleet of stately ships, leaving
their nursery in possession of the invader. The boat grounded in two or
three feet of mud, and when the party had floundered through this, the
seven nests were found to be empty. A fisherman had plundered them that
morning, taking from each nest one egg, which we afterwards recovered.
The nests were constructed in a great measure of old reed palings (used
by the natives for enclosing Fish) mixed with such pieces of the
vegetation of the islet as were suitable for the purpose. The seven
nests were arranged in the shape of an irregular cross, the navel of the
cross, which was the tallest nest, being about thirty inches high, the
two next in line being about two feet, and the two forming the arms
being a few inches lower, the two extremes at either end being about
fourteen inches from the ground. The eggs are chalky, like others of the
Pelican family, very rough in texture.”