BROWN P.
dpi
■ I
Hi
D e s c r ip t ion.
Pelecanus onocrotalus (occidentalism Lin, Syji. i. p. 215. 1. $,— Georgi
Rei/e, p. 169.
Le Pelican bran, BriJ. Orn. vi. p. 524. 2.—Buf. Oif, viii. p. 306.— PI, Enl.
N° 957.
TKe Pelecane, Rail Syn. p. 191. 3.—Will. Orn. p. 327.— Sloan. Jam.
p. 322. 1.— Brown Jam, p. 480.
Pelican of America, Edw. pi. 93.— Ellis Hudf, Bay, i. pi. 1.— Ar£t, Zool.
N ° 506. A
Br^Muf, Lev, MuJ,
^ pH IS rather exceeds a Goofe in fize : length nearly four feet.
The bill is lhaped as in other Pelicans, length fifteen inches
and a quarter; at the bafe it is greenilh, but inclines to blue
mixed with a little red near the end: the pouch is of a blueilh alh-
colour, ftreaked with reddifti lines: irides deep blueilh alh-co-
lour : the bare Ikin round the eyes whitilh : the head and neck are
white; the firft a little crefted at the back part; back, fcapulars,
and rump, cinereous brown, the middle of each feather whitilh:
the bread and under parts like the upper, but plain : the upper
wing coverts like the back ■, but fome of the outer greater ones
are plain brown : the ihape of moll of the above feathers is
pointed, narrow, and long: prime quills black j the fecondaries
hoary brown : tail the fame, and conlifts of eighteen feathers :
legs lead-colour : claws black.
I apprehend this to be the bird called a Gull in the Hijlory of
California*, and found in vail; numbers in that place, the IJleofAf-
fumpion, and San Roche. It is faid to equal a very large Goofe in
lize, and tp have a vaft craw, which in fome hangs down like the
Vol. . p. 40.
Peruvian
Peruvian leather water bottles *. It is ufual for thefe to bring food
to any wounded or lick companion; hence the natives take the
advantage of confining one of them near the lhore, by which means
they procure a diih offifh without the trouble of catching it.
The
* By the Peruvian leather hottle is perhaps meant that made of the elafiic re-
Jin, or caoutchouc, commonly known by the name of India rubber. This is produced
from the juice of the Jyringe-tree of Cayenne, and other parts of South America
: it hardens by cold, fbftens to a great degree by heat, and is wonderfully
elaitic. It Is faid to be made thus:— The juice of the tree is obtained by
inciiion; it is then fpread over pieces of clay, formed into the defired ihape, and1,
as faft as one layer is dry another is added, till the hottle be of the proper thick-
nefs: the whole is then held over a ftrong fmoke of vegetables on fire, whereby
it,hardens into the texture and appearance of leather, and before the finilhing,
while yet foft, is capable of having any imprefiion made on the outfide, which
remains ever after: when the whole is done, the infide mould is picked out*.—
The ufe of the above, as a containing veilel, is no doubt not of very recent date,
being related, as a thing commonly known, in the Hijlory of California above-
mentioned f- I remember myfelf to have feen, more than thirty years fince, a
fmaller one of thefe bottles, fliewn to me as a curiofity.— As to the ufe of this
fubilance for deftroying the marks of the black-lead pencil, it is probably of no
long Handing; the firft we remember of it was about the year I77r or 177a,
when fqnare portions, Ibmewhat above half an inch in diameter, were fold in
fmall boxes for the laft-named purpofe, of which 1 purchafedone at that time, to
my great fatisfaftion.— As to the plant which produces this ufeful matter, we are
not clear to what genus it belongs : Aublet, in his Hijloire des Plantes de la Guiane t,
defcribes the tree, the fruit, and manner of collefling the juice, but never faw
fPPSjjMs; he calls it Hevea Guianenjis. Linnaeus (the fon) in his Supplementum
Plantarum, names it Jatropha elajlica §; but confefles that he only gives it this
name from the ftructure of Hue fruit, having moft refemblance to that genus; hia
* For. Med. Review, 1779, p. 129, with a chemical analyfis of the fubftance,
•f Firft publilhed in Spanifb, J757, J P. 87J, f P. 42a,
dry