The Brown Pelican is an American species, smaller than the preceding. It
has the head and the neck variegated with white and ash-color; all the
rest of the plumage of a brownish grey, with white marks on the back;
the pouch is of an ashy blue, striped with a red hue. It is found on the
coasts of Peru, Florida and South Carolina.
Although heavy-looking on the wing, this species is capable of
performing flights of immense distance, and to a certain extent may be
considered migratory. In winter they are seldom seen beyond the edge of
the tropics, but in summer they are frequently found as far north as the
thirty-sixth degree of latitude. Extremely wary and difficult of
approach, they are seldom shot, although persistently pursued by
fishermen, on account of the immense damage they do to the spawn and
young Fish.
They are also possessed of the greatest powers of vitality, and resist
death when pierced with wounds so serious that they would inevitably
kill any other species.
From this circumstance doubtless they receive the name of Die-hards from
the residents that dwell on the margin of the Gulf of Mexico. When
disabled from taking flight, their courage in defending themselves from
an assailant is as remarkable as that of the Bittern; but being
possessed of superior size and strength to the latter Bird, the Brown
Pelican can successfully resist the strongest Dog.
Like the other species of this genus they live in small communities of
twenty or thirty members, and build their nests upon the ground closely
adjoining each other, and the utmost good fellowship, almost affection
for each other, exists between them. The young Birds remain with their
parents till the spring following their birth, the old ones driving them
off to seek new homes, when the advance of the season tells them that
they must provide a home for a coming family. As in many other races,
the plumage of the young is much darker and less handsomely marked than
in the adults. From frequent persecution, the Brown Pelican has of late
years much diminished in numbers.