94 AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN.
species, are apt to snap at objects which they appear to know perfectly
to be so. far superior to them as to disdain taking notice of them.
Their usual manner of flight is precisely similar to that of our Brown
species. It is said by authors that the White Pelican can alight on trees;
hut I have never seen a single instance of its doing so. I am of' opinion
that the ridge projecting from the upper mandible increases i&
size as the bird grows oMerS.aiid that it uses-that apparatus as a means
of defence or of attack, when engaged with its, rivals in the loveseason.
•> -
The number of small fishes destroyed by a single bird of this species
may appear to you, as it did to mo, quite extraordinary. While
I was at General HERNANDEZ'S plantation in East Florida, one of
them chanced to pass close over the house of my generous host,
and was brought dead to the ground. It was not a mature bird, but
apparently about eighteen months old. On opening it, wo found in its
stomach several hundreds of fishes, of the size of what are usually
called minnows. Amongttho many which I have at different times examined,
I never found one containing fishes a* large as-tho^e commonly
swallowed by tliji/Hrown specie«, which, in my opinion, isBifle likely
to secure a large fish by plunging upon it from 011 wing, than a bird
which must swim after its prey.
This beautiful species,—for, Header, it is truly .beautiful, and y.ou
would say so were you to pick. up in all the natural cleanness of its
.plumage, from the surface of the water,—carries its crest broadly expanded,
as if divided into two parts from the centre of the head. The
brightness of its eyes seemed to me to rival that of the purest diamond;
and ill the love season, or the spring'Of the year, the orange-red colour
of its legs and feet, as well as of the poach and bill, is wonderfully enriched,
being as represented in my plate, while luring the autumnal
month's these parts are pale. Its flesh is rank, fishy, and nauseous,
and therefore quite unfit for "food, unless in eases of extreme wocossity.
The idea that these birds are easily caught when gorged with fish, is
quite incorrect} for when approached, on such an occasion, they throw
up their food, a.« Vultures' are wont to do.
I regret exceedingly tlmt I cannot. say any thing respecting their
nests, eggs, or. young, as I have not been in the •countries in which
they are said to breed.
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 95
PKÎ.KCANTS AMERICANOS.
Adult Male. Plate OOCXI.
Bill a little more, than thrice the length of the head, rather slender,
almost straight, depressed. I.'pper mandible linear, depressed, convex
at the base, gradually flattened and a little enlarged to near the end,
when it again narrows, and terminates in a booked point. The ridge, is
broad and convex at tjie ba.se,..becomes gradually narrowed and flattoned
1,0% mid the middle,, is elevated into a thin crest about an inch
high, of a fibrous structure, and about thre.« inches in length (in some
specimens: as much as five.inclu s) which is continued forwards of less
elevation to the extent ¡of an inch farther. The ridge of the mandible
fa then »arrow, and flat, and terminates in the unguis, which is oblong,
sightly carinate above, curved, obtuse, concave beneath. The edges
are very sharp and a little involute ; the lower surface of the mandible
has a median slender sharp ridge, on each: side of which, at the distance
of a quarter of an inch is a stronger ridgo having a groove in its
whole length; the sides then,slope upwards to ,tlie...mcurved margin,
¡uidtin this latter space, is received the edge of the other mandible.
.Loiter mandible having its crura separated,, very, slender, elastic,,«and
meeting only at. the very extremity,, ¡s® that the angle or interspace
may be described as extremely long, occupying in fact the whole length
of the bill excepting four-twelfths of an inch at the end ; for two-thirds
-qf its length ;from the base, the lower mandible is broader than the, upper,
which is owing to tlie crura lying obliquely, but beyond the crest
it is narrower ;. the extremely short dorsal line ascending, convex, the
«Igte; inflected, sharp, and longitudinally grooved. .To the lower mandible,
in place of the, skin or membrane, filling up the angle in most
. other birds, is appended a vast sac seven, inches in depth opposite the
base of bill, and extending down the throat about eight inches, so
that its length from the tip of the lower ia^ndiblgiis twenty-one and a half
inches., It is formed of the skin, which is thin, transparent, elastic, rugous,
highly vascular, and capable of being expanded like a net, supported
by the elastic mandibles to the breadth of nine and a half inches.
Head small, oblong: ; neck long, stout ; body full, rather flattened.
Feet short and very stout; tibia bare at its lower part, covered all
round with small scales ; tarsus short, very stout, compressed, covered
all round with hexagonal scales, of which the anterior are much larger ;