in ornithology, a genus belonging to the order of anseres. The bill is straight, without teeth, and crooked at the point; the face is naked, and the feet are palmated. Mr Latham enumerates no less than 30 different species of this genus, besides varieties. The most remarkable seem to be these that follow:

1. The carbo, or corvovant, sometimes exceeds seven pounds in weight; the length three feet four; the extent four feet two; the bill dusky, five inches long, destitute of nostrils; the base of the lower mandible is covered with a naked yellow skin, that extends under the chin, and forms a sort of pouch; a loose skin of the same colour reaches from the upper mandible round the eyes and angles of the mouth; the head and neck are of a footy blackness, but under the chin of the male the feathers are white; and the head in that sex is adorned with a short, loose, pendant crest; in some the crest and hind-part of the head are streaked with white. The coverts of the wings, the scapulars, and the back, are of a deep green, edged with black, and glossed with blue; the quill-feathers and tail dusky; the legs are short, strong, and black; the middle claw ferrated on the inside; the irides are of a light ash-colour.

These birds occupy the highest parts of the cliffs that impend over the sea: they make their nests of sticks, sea-tang, grass, &c. and lay six or seven white eggs of an oblong form. In winter they disperse along the shores, and visit the fresh waters, where they make great havoc among the fish. They are remarkably voracious, having a most sudden digestion, promoted by the infinite quantity of small worms that fill their intestines. The corvovant has the rankest and most disagreeable smell of any bird, even when alive. Its form is disagreeable; its voice hoarse and croaking, and its qualities base. These birds, however, have been trained to fish like falcons to fowl. Whitelock tells us, that he had a cast of them manned like hawks, and which would come to hand. He took much pleasure in them; and relates, that the best he had was one presented him by Mr Wood, master of the corvovants to Charles I. It is well known that the Chinese make great use of these birds, or a congenial sort, in fishing; and that not for amusement, but profit.

2. The graeculus, or shag, called in the north of England the crane, is much inferior in size to the corvovant: the length is 27 inches; the breadth three feet six; the weight three pounds three quarters. The bill is four inches long, and more slender than that of the preceding: the head is adorned with a crest two inches long, pointing backward; the whole plumage of the upper part of this bird is of a fine and very shining green; the edge of the feathers a purplish black; but the lower part of the back, the head, and neck, wholly green; the belly is dusky; the tail of a dusky hue, tinged with green; the legs are black, and like Pelicanus, those of the corvovant.

Both these kinds agree in their manners, and breed in the same places; and, what is very strange in web-footed birds, will perch and build in trees: both swim with their head quite erect, and are very difficult to be shot; for, like the grebes and divers, as soon as they see the flash of the gun, they pop under water, and never rise but at a considerable distance.

3. The hætanus, gannet, or solan goose, weighs seven pounds; the length is three feet one inch; the breadth six feet two inches. The bill is six inches long, straight almost to the point, where it inclines down; and the sides are irregularly jagged, that it may hold its prey with more security: about an inch from the base of the upper mandible is a sharp process pointing forward; it has no nostrils; but in their place a long furrow, that reaches almost to the end of the bill: the whole is of a dirty white, tinged with ash-colour. The tongue is very small, and placed low in the mouth; a naked skin of a fine blue surrounds the eyes, which are of a pale yellow, and are full of vivacity: this bird is remarkable for the quickness of its flight. Martin tells us, that solan is derived from an Irish word expressive of that quality.

From the corner of the mouth is a narrow slip of black bare skin, that extends to the hind part of the head; beneath the chin is another, that, like the pouch of the pelican, is dilatable, and of size sufficient to contain five or six entire herrings; which in the breeding season it carries at once to its mate or young.

The young birds, during the first year, differ greatly in colour from the old ones; being of a dusky hue, speckled with numerous triangular white spots; and at that time resemble in colours the speckled diver. Each bird, if left undisturbed, would only lay one egg in the year; but if that be taken away, they will lay another; if that is also taken, then a third; but never more that season. Their egg is white, and rather less than that of the common goose; the nest is large, and formed of anything the bird finds floating on the water, such as grass, sea-plants, shavings, &c. These birds frequent the Isle of Alifa, in the Frith of Clyde; the rocks adjacent to St Kilda; the Stacks of Southerness, near the Orkneys; the Skellig Isles, off the coasts of Kerry, Ireland; and the Bass Isle, in the Frith of Edinburgh: the multitudes that inhabit these places are prodigious. Dr Harvey's elegant account of the latter, will serve to give some idea of the numbers of these, and of the other birds that annually migrate to that little spot.

"There is a small island, called by the Scotch Bass Island, not more than a mile in circumference; the surface is almost wholly covered during the months of May and June with nests, eggs, and young birds; so that it is scarcely possible to walk without treading on them; and the flocks of birds in flight are so prodigious as to darken the air like clouds; and their noise is such, that you cannot without difficulty hear your next neighbour's voice. If you look down upon the sea from the top of the precipice, you will see it on every side covered with infinite numbers of birds of different kinds, swimming and hunting for their prey." Pelicanus, if in sailing round the island you survey the hanging cliffs, you may see in every crevice or fissure of the broken rocks innumerable birds of various sorts and sizes, more than the stars of heaven when viewed in a serene night: if from afar you see the distant flocks, either flying to or from the island, you would imagine them to be a vast swarm of bees.

Nor do the rocks of St Kilda seem to be less frequented by these birds; for Martin affirms us, that the inhabitants of that small island consume annually no less than 22,600 young birds of this species, besides an amazing quantity of their eggs, these being their principal support throughout the year: they preserve both eggs and fowls in pyramidal stone-buildings, covering them with turf ashes to preserve them from moisture. This is a dear bought food, earned at the hazard of their lives, either by climbing the most difficult and narrow paths, where (to appearance) they can barely cling, and that too at an amazing height over the raging sea; or else, being lowered down from above, they collect their annual provision, thus hanging in midway air; placing their whole dependence on the uncertain footing of one person, who holds the rope by which they are suspended at the top of the precipice. The young birds are a favorite dish with the North Britons in general: during the season, they are constantly brought from the Bass of to Edinburgh, sold at 2d. a piece, are roasted, and served up little before dinner as a whet.

Mr Macaulay, missionary from the general assembly to St Kilda, gives the following account of them in that island: "These rocks are in summer totally covered with folan geese and other fowls, and appear at a distance like so many mountains covered with snow. The nests of the folan geese, not to mention those of other fowls, are so close, that when one walks between them, the hatching fowls on either side can always take hold of one's clothes; and they will often sit until they are attacked, rather than expose their eggs to the danger of being destroyed by the sea-gulls; at the same time, an equal number fly about, and furnish food for their mates that are employed in hatching; and there are, besides, large flocks of barren fowls of the different tribes that frequent the rocks of St Kilda.

"The folan geese equal almost the tame ones in size. The common amusement of the herring-fishers show the great strength of this fowl. The fishers fix a herring upon a board which has a small weight under it, to sink it a little below the surface of the sea: the folan geese, observing the fish, darts down upon it perpendicularly, and with so much force, that he runs his bill irrecoverably through the board, and is taken up directly by the fishers.

"The folan geese repair to St Kilda in the month of March, and continue there till after the beginning of November. Before the middle of that month they, and all the other sea-fowls that are fond of this coast, retire much about the same time into some other favorite regions; so that not a single fowl belonging to their element is to be seen about St Kilda from the beginning of winter down to the middle of February. Before the young folan geese fly off, they are larger than their mothers, and the fat on their breasts is sometimes three inches deep. Into what quarter of the world these tribes of wild fowl repair, after winter sets in, whether into the northern ocean, the native country and winter quarters of herrings in general, or into some other region near the sun, or whether they be of the sleeping kind, they who pry into the mysteries of natural history, or have conversed much with writers of voyages, can best explain (A). I shall only pretend to say, that these different nations of the feathered kind

(A) The continuance of these birds is longer or shorter in the islands according as the inhabitants take or leave their first egg; but, in general, the time of breeding, and that of their departure, seems to coincide with the arrival of the herring, and the migration of that fish (which is their principal food) out of those seas. It is probable therefore that these birds attend the herring and pilchard during their whole circuit round the British islands; the appearance of the former being always esteemed by the fishermen as a sure prelude of the approach of the latter. It migrates, we are told, in quest of food as far south as the mouth of the Tagus, being frequently seen off Lisbon during the month of September, or, as some say, December. Of the extensive migrations of this species we have the following more particular account in Pennant's Arctic Zoology: "It inhabits the coast of Newfoundland, where it breeds, and migrates southward as far as South Carolina. In Europe, it is common on the coast of Norway and Iceland; but as it never voluntarily flies over land, is not seen in the Baltic. It wanders for food as far as the coast of Lisbon and Gibraltar, where it has been seen in December, plunging for sardines. Straggles as high as Greenland. In northern Asia, it has been once seen by Steller, off Bering's isle; but has been frequently met with in the southern hemisphere, in the Pacific Ocean; particularly in numbers about New Zealand and New Holland. Captain Cook also saw them in his passage from England to the Cape of Good Hope, and remoter from land than they had been seen elsewhere. Among those observed in the South Sea, is the variety called fula, with a few black feathers in the tail and among the secondaries. They are found not only on the Feroe islands, but on our coasts, one having been brought to me a few years ago which had fallen down wearied with its flight." In the month of August, the same accurate naturalist has observed in Caithness their northern migrations: he has seen them passing the whole day in flocks, from five to fifteen in each: in calm weather they fly high; in storms they fly low, and near the shore; but never cross over the land, even when a bay with promontories intervenes, but follow, at an equal distance, the course of the bay, and regularly double every cape. Many of the parties made a sort of halt for the sake of fishing: they soared to a vast height, then darting headlong into the sea, made the water foam and spring up with the violence of their descent, after which they pursued their route. Our author inquired whether they ever were observed to return southward in the spring, but was answered in the negative, so it appears that they annually encircle the whole island. kind are taught to choose the properest habitations and feeding places, and to shift their quarters seasonably, by the unerring hand of God.

From the account given above of the multitudes of sea-fowls that seek their food on this coast, we may justly conclude that there must be inexhaustible stores of fish there. Let us for a moment confine our attention to the consumption made by a single species of fowls. The solan goose is almost infatitably voracious; he flies with great force and velocity, toils all the day with very little intermission, and digests his food in a very short time; he disdains to eat anything worse than herring or mackerel, unless it be in a very hungry place, which he takes care to avoid or abandon. We shall take it for granted that there are 100,000 of that kind around the rocks of St Kilda; and this calculation is by far too moderate, as no less than 20,000 of this kind are destroyed every year, including the young ones. We shall suppose, at the same time, that the solan geese sojourn in these seas for about seven months of the year; that each of them destroys five herrings in a day; a subsistence infinitely poor for so greedy a creature, unless it were more than half supported at the expense of other fishes. Here we have 100,000,000 of the finest fish in the world devoured annually by a single species of the St Kilda sea-fowls.

If, in the next place, it be considered, that much the greatest part of the other tribes have much the same appetite for herrings, and pursue it from place to place, in the several migrations it makes from one sea to another, the consumption must be prodigiously great. Taking these into the account, and allowing them the same quantity of food, and of the same kind, by reason of their vast superiority in point of numbers, tho' their stomachs are considerably weaker; we see there are no less than 200,000,000 of herrings swallowed up every year by the birds of a very small district of rocks, which occupy no inconsiderable space in the Decalogue ocean.

Should all the articles of this account be sustained, articles which seem no less just than plain, and should our curiosity lead us into a new calculation, allowing between 600 and 700 to every barrel, it is evident that more than 330,000 barrels are annually carried away by such creatures.

These birds are well known on most of the coasts of England, but not by the name of the Solan goose. In Cornwall and in Ireland they are called gannets; by the Welsh, gan. Mr Ray supposed the Cornish gannet to be a species of large gull; a very excusable mistake; for during his six months residence in Cornwall, he never had an opportunity of seeing that bird, except flying; and in the air it has the appearance of a gull. On that supposition he gave our skua the title of cataraiga, a name borrowed from Aridiotte, and which admirably expresses the rapid descent of this bird on its prey. Mr Moyle first detected this mistake; and the Rev. Dr William Barlise, by presenting us with a fine specimen of this bird, confirms the opinion of Mr Moyle; at the same time giving the following natural history of the bird.

The gannet comes on the coasts of Cornwall in the latter end of summer, or beginning of autumn; hovering over the shoals of pilchards that come down to us through St George's Channel from the northern Pelicanus Sea. The gannet seldom comes near the land, but is constant to its prey, a sure sign to the fishermen that the pilchards are on the coasts; and when the pilchards retire, generally about the end of November, the gannets are seen no more. The bird now sent was killed at Chandour, near Mountsbay, Sept. 30, 1762, after a long struggle with a water-spaniel, assisted by the boatmen; for it was strong and pugnacious. The person who took it observed that it had a transparent membrane under the eye-lid, with which it covered at pleasure the whole eye, without obscuring the sight or shutting the eye-lid; a gracious provision for the security of the eyes of so weighty a creature, whose method of taking its prey is by darting headlong on it from a height of 150 feet or more into the water. About four years ago, one of these birds flying over Penzance, (a thing that rarely happens), and seeing some pilchards lie on a fir-plank, in a cellar used for curing fish, darted itself down with such violence, that it struck its bill quite through the board (about an inch and a quarter thick), and broke its neck.

These birds are sometimes taken at sea by a deception of the like kind; the fishermen fastening a pilchard to a board, as in St Kilda they fasten herrings, and which in the same manner decoys the unwary gannet to its own destruction.

In the Cataraiga of Juba may be found many characters of this bird; he says, that the bill is toothed; that its eyes are fiery; and that its colour is white; and in the very name is expressed its furious descent on its prey. The rest of his accounts favour of fable. —We are uncertain whether the gannet breeds in any other parts of Europe besides our own islands; except, as Mr Ray supposes, the fula (described in Cluffus's Exotics, which breeds in Feroe Isles) be the same bird.

4. The fula, or booby, is somewhat less than a goose; the basis of the bill yellow, and of bare feathers; the eyes of a light-grey colour; the lower part of the bill of a light brown. The colours of the body are brown and white; but varied so in different individuals, that they cannot be described by them. Their wings are very long; their legs and feet pale yellow, shaped like those of corvoraunts. They frequent the Bahama islands, where they breed all months in the year, laying one, two, or three eggs, on the bare rock. While young, they are covered with a white down, and continue so till they are almost ready to fly. They feed on fish like the rest of this genus; but have a very troublesome enemy of the man-of-war bird, which lives on the spoils obtained from other sea-birds, particularly the booby. As soon as this rapacious enemy perceives that the booby has taken a fish, he flies furiously at him, upon which the former dives to avoid the blow; but as he cannot swallow his prey below water, he is soon obliged to come up again with the fish in his bill as before, when he suffers a new assault; nor does his enemy cease to persecute him till he lets go the fish, which the other immediately carries off.

5. The great booby, called by Linnæus pelicanus Balsani puffus, frequents the rivers and sea-coasts of Florida, pursuing and devouring fishes like others of the genus. Mr Catesby informs us, that he has fe- Pellucidae

veral times found them disabled, and sometimes dead, on the shore; whence he thinks that they meet with sharks or other voracious fishes, which destroy them. The bird is about the size of a goose; the head and neck remarkably prominent; the back of a brown colour; the belly dusky white; the feet black, and shaped like those of a corvus; the head elegantly spotted with white; the wings extend five feet when spread. Both this species and the last have a joint in the upper mandible of the bill, by which they can raise it considerably from the lower one without opening the mouth.

6. The aquilus, or man-of-war bird, is in the body about the size of a large fowl; in length three feet, and in breadth 14. The bill is slender, five inches long, and much curved at the point; the colour is dusky; from the base a reddish dark-coloured skin spreads on each side of the head, taking in the eyes; from the under mandible hangs a large membranaceous bag attached some way down the throat, as in the pelican, and applied to the same uses; the colour of this is a fine deep red, sprinkled on the sides with a few scattered feathers: the whole plumage is brownish-black, except the wing coverts, which have a rufous tinge; the tail is long, and much forked; the outer feathers are 18 inches or more in length; the middle ones from seven to eight; the legs are small, all the toes are webbed together, and the webs are deeply indented; the colour of them is dusky red.

The female differs in wanting the membranaceous pouch under the chin; and in having the belly white: in other things is greatly like the male.

The frigate pelican, or man-of-war bird (b), as it is by some called, is chiefly, if not wholly, met with between the tropics, and ever out at sea, being only seen on the wing. It is usual with other birds, when fatigued with flying, to rest themselves on the surface of the water; but nature, from the exceeding length of wing ordained to this, has made the rising therefrom utterly impossible, at least writers not only to inform us, but every one whom we have talked with avers the same; though perhaps this is no defect of nature, as it scarcely seems to require much rest; at least, from the length of wing, and its apparent easy gliding motion (much like that of the kite), it appears capable of sustaining very long flights; for it is often seen above 100, and not unfrequently above 200 leagues from land. It has indeed been known to settle on the masts of ships; but this is not a frequent circumstance, though it will often approach near, and hover about the top-mast flag. Sometimes it soars so high in the air as to be scarcely visible, yet at other times approaches the surface of the sea, where, hovering at some distance, the moment he spies a fish, it darts down on it with the utmost rapidity, and seldom without success, flying upwards again as quick as it descended. It is also seen to attack* gulls and other birds which have caught a fish, when it obliges them to disgorge it, and then take care to seize it before it falls into the water. It is an enemy to the flying-fish; for, on their being attacked beneath by the dolphin and other voracious fish, to escape their jaws, these semi-volatiles leap out of the water in clutters, making use of their long fins as wings to buoy them up in the air, which they are enabled to do so long as they remain wet; but the moment they become dry are useless, and drop into their proper element again: during their flight, the frigate darts in among the shoal, and seizes one or two at least. These birds know the exact place where the fish are to rise from the bubbling of the water, which directs them to the spot; in this they are accompanied by gulls and other birds, who act in concert with them.

These birds, which, though not uncommon everywhere within the tropics, yet are less frequent in some places than others, were seen by Cook in 30° deg. In the old route of navigators, they are mentioned frequently as being met with at Ascension Island, Ceylon, East Indies, and China (c). Dampier saw them in great plenty in the island of Aves in the West Indies. Our later navigators talk of them as frequenting various places of the South Sea, about the Marquesas, Easter Isles, and New Caledonia, also at Otaheite, though at this last place not in such plenty as in many others. They are said to make nests on trees, if there be any within a proper distance; otherwise on the rocks. They lay one or two eggs of a flesh-colour, marked with crimson spots. The young birds are covered with greyish white down; the legs are of the same colour, and the bill is white. There is a variety of this species, which is less, measuring only two feet nine inches in length; the extent from wing to wing is five feet and a half. The bill is five inches long, and red; the base of it, and bare space round the eye, are of the same colour; the nostrils are sufficiently apparent, and appear near the base; the shape of the bill is as in the larger one; the head, hind part of the neck, and upper parts of the body and wings, are ferruginous brown; the throat, fore part of the neck, and breast, are white; the tail is greatly forked as in the other; the legs are of a dirty yellow.

"In my collection (says Latham) is a bird very similar to this, if not the same; general colour of the plumage full black; breast and belly mottled with ash-colour; the inner ridge of the wing the same; the bill has the long furrow, as is seen in the greater one; but the nostrils are sufficiently apparent, being about half an inch in length, rather broader at that part near the base. This has a large red pouch at the chin and throat, as in the former species. It is most likely that mine is the male bird, as others, suspected to be of the opposite sex, have little or no traces of the jugular pouch. This supposition seems justified from a pair in the Hunterian museum, in both of which the plumage is wholly black; the one has a large pouch, the other

(b) It is also called tailleur, or tailor, by the French, from the motion of its tail representing a pair of shears when opened; and when on the wing, it opens and shuts them frequently, in the manner of using that instrument.—Ulloa, Voy. ii. p. 304.

(c) Thought by Osbeck to be one of the sorts of birds used in fishing by the Chinese. other destitute of it. Some have supposed that the greater and lesser frigates are the same bird, in different periods of age."

7. The onocrotalus, or pelican of Asia, Africa, and America; though Linnæus thinks that the pelican of America may possibly be a distinct variety. This creature, in Africa, is much larger in the body than a swan, and somewhat of the same shape and colour. Its four toes are all webbed together; and its neck in some measure resembles that of a swan: but that singularity in which it differs from all other birds is in the bill and the great pouch underneath. This enormous bill is 15 inches from the point to the opening of the mouth, which is a good way back behind the eyes. At the base the bill is somewhat greenish, but varies towards the end, being of a reddish blue. It is very thick in the beginning, but tapers off to the end, where it hooks downwards. The under chap is still more extraordinary; for the lower edges of it hang a bag, reaching the whole length of the bill to the neck, which is said to be capable of containing 45 quarts of water. This bag the bird has a power of wrinkling up into the hollow of the under-chap; but by opening the bill, and putting one's hand down into the bag, it may be distended at pleasure. The skin of which it is formed will then be seen of a bluish ash-colour, with many fibres and veins running over its surface. It is not covered with feathers, but with a short downy substance as smooth and as soft as fettin, and is attached all along to the under edges of the chap, is fixed backward to the neck of the bird by proper ligaments, and reaches near half way down. When this bag is empty, it is not seen; but when the bird has fished with success, it is then incredible to what an extent it is often seen dilated. For the first thing the pelican does in fishing is to fill up the bag; and then it returns to digest its burden at leisure. When the bill is opened to its widest extent, a person may run his head into the bird's mouth, and conceal it in this monstrous pouch, thus adapted for very singular purposes. Yet this is nothing to what Ruyfus affirms us, who avers that a man has been seen to hide his whole legs, boot and all, in the monstrous jaws of one of these animals. At first appearance this would seem impossible, as the sides of the under chap, from which the bag depends, are not above an inch aunder when the bird's bill is first opened; but then they are capable of great separation; and it must necessarily be so, as the bird preys upon large fishes, and hides them by dozens in its pouch. Tertre affirms, that it will hide as many fish as will serve 60 hungry men for a meal.

This pelican was once also known in Europe, particularly in Russia; but it seems to have deserted our coasts. This is the bird of which so many fabulous accounts have been propagated; such as its feeding its young with its own blood, and its carrying a provision of water for them in its great reservoir in the desert. But the absurdity of the first account answers itself; and as for the latter, the pelican uses its bag for very different purposes than that of filling it with water.

Clavigero, in his History of Mexico, says that "there are two species, or rather varieties, of this bird in Mexico; the one having a smooth bill, the other a notched one. Although the Europeans are acquainted with this bird, I do not know whether they are equally well acquainted with the singular circumstance of its afflicting the sick or hurt of its own species; a circumstance which the Americans sometimes take advantage of to procure fish without trouble. They take a live pelican, break its wings, and after tying it to a tree, conceal themselves in the neighbourhood; there they watch the coming of the other pelicans with their provisions, and as soon as they see these throw up the fish from their pouch, run in, and after leaving a little for the captive bird, they carry off the rest."

This amazing pouch may be considered as analogous to the crop in other birds; with this difference, that as theirs lie at the bottom of the gullet, so this is placed at the top. Thus, as pigeons and other birds macerate their food for their young in their crops, and then supply them; so the pelican supplies its young by a more ready contrivance, and macerates their food in its bill, or stores it for its own particular sustenance.

The ancients were particularly fond of giving this bird admirable qualities and parental affections: struck, perhaps, with its extraordinary figure, they were willing to supply it with as extraordinary appetites; and having found it with a large reservoir, they were pleased with turning it to the most tender and parental uses. But the truth is, the pelican is a very heavy, sluggish, voracious bird, and very ill fitted to take those flights, or to make those cautious provisions for a distant time, which we have been told they do.

The pelican, says Labat, has strong wings, furnished with thick plumage of an ash-colour, as are the rest of the feathers over the whole body. Its eyes are very small, when compared with the size of its head; there is a sadness in its countenance, and its whole air is melancholy. It is as dull and reluctant in its motions as the flamingo is sprightly and active. It is slow of flight; and when it rises to fly, performs it with difficulty and labour. Nothing, as it would seem, but the spur of necessity, could make these birds change their situation, or induce them to ascend into the air: but they must either starve or fly.

They are torpid and inactive to the last degree, so that nothing can exceed their indolence but their gluttony; it is only from the stimulations of hunger that they are excited to labour; for otherwise they would continue always in fixed repose. When they have raised themselves about 30 or 40 feet above the surface of the sea, they turn their head with one eye downwards, and continue to fly in that posture. As soon as they perceive a fish sufficiently near the surface, they dart down upon it with the swiftness of an arrow, seize it with unerring certainty, and store it up in their pouch. They then rise again, though not without great labour, and continue hovering and fishing, with their head on one side as before.

This work they continue with great effort and industry till their bag is full, and then they fly to land to devour and digest at leisure the fruits of their industry. This, however, it would appear, they are not long in performing; for towards night they have another hungry call, and they again reluctantly go to labour. At night, when their fishing is over, and the toil of the day crowned with success, these lazy birds retire a little way from the shore; and, though with the webbed feet and clumsy figure of a goose, they will be contented to perch nowhere but upon trees among the light and airy. airy tenants of the forest. There they take their repose for the night; and often spend a great part of the day, except such times as they are fishing, fitting in dismal solemnity, and, as it would seem, half asleep. Their attitude is with the head resting upon their great bags, and that resting upon their breast. There they remain without motion, or once changing their situation, till the calls of hunger break their repose, and till they find it indispensably necessary to fill their magazine for a fresh meal. Thus their life is spent between sleeping and eating; and our author adds, that they are as foul as they are voracious, as they are every moment voiding excrements in heaps as large as one's fist.

The same indolent habits seem to attend them even in preparing for incubation, and defending their young when excluded. The female makes no preparation for her nest, nor seems to choose any place in preference to lay in; but drops her eggs on the bare ground, to the number of five or six, and there continues to hatch them. Attached to the place, without any desire of defending her eggs or her young, she tamely sits and suffers them to be taken from under her. Now and then she just ventures to peck, or to cry out when a person offers to beat her off.

She feeds her young with fish macerated for some time in her bag; and when they cry, flies off for a new supply. Labat tells us, that he took two of these when very young, and tied them by the leg to a pole stuck into the ground, where he had the pleasure of seeing the old one for several days come to feed them, remaining with them the greatest part of the day, and spending the night on the branch of a tree that hung over them. By these means they were all three become so familiar, that they suffered themselves to be handled; and the young ones very kindly accepted whatever fish he offered them. These they always put first into their bag, and then swallowed at their leisure.

It seems, however, that they are but disagreeable and useless domestic birds; their gluttony can scarcely be satisfied; their flesh smells very rancid, and tastes a thousand times worse than it smells. The native Americans kill vast numbers; not to eat, for they are not fit even for the banquet of a savage, but to convert their large bags into purses and tobacco-pouches. They bestow no small pains in dressing the skin with salt and ashes, rubbing it well with oil, and then forming it to their purpose. It thus becomes so soft and pliant, that the Spanish women sometimes adorn it with gold and embroidery to make work-bags of.

Yet, with all the seeming helplessness of this bird, it is not entirely incapable of instruction in a domestic state. Father Raymond assures us, that he has seen one so tame and well educated among the native Americans, that it would go off in the morning at the word of command, and return before night to its master, with its great pouch distended with plunder; a part of which the savages would make it disgorge, and a part they would permit it to reserve for itself.

"The pelican," as Faber relates, "is not destitute of other qualifications. One of those which was brought alive to the duke of Bavaria's court, where it lived 40 years, seemed to be possessed of very uncommon sensations. It was much delighted in the company and conversation of men, and in music both vocal and instrumental; for it would willingly stand," says he, "by those that sung or sounded the trumpet; and stretching out its head, and turning its ear to the music, listened very attentively to its harmony, though its own voice was little pleasanter than the braying of an ass." Gessner tells us, that the emperor Maximilian had a tame pelican which lived for above 80 years, and that always attended his army on their march. It was one of the largest of the kind, and had a daily allowance by the emperor's orders. As another proof of the great age to which the pelican lives, Aldrovandus makes mention of one of these birds that was kept several years at Mechlin, and was verily believed to be 50 years old.—We often see these birds at our shows about town.

Mr Edwards, in his History of Birds, describes the pelican of America from one, the body of which was seen him stuffed and dried. From the point of the bill to the angles of the mouth measured 13 inches, and the wing when closed measured 18 inches. The pouch when dry appeared of the consistence and colour of a brown dry ox's bladder, having fibres running its whole length, and blood-vessels crossing them; and proceeding from the sides of the lower part of the bill, which opened into this pouch, its whole length. The greater bone of the wing being broken, was found to be light, hollow, void of marrow, and the sides of it thin as parchment. Sir Hans Sloane writes thus of it (see Nat. Hist. of Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 322.): "This seems to be the same with the white pelican, only of a darker colour. They are frequent in all the seas of the hot West Indies. They fish after the same manner as man-of-war birds, and come into the sheltered bays in stormy weather, where they very often perch on trees; they fly over the sea as gulls, and take the fish when they spy them, by falling down upon them, and they then rise again and do the like. They are not reckoned good food. When they are seen at sea, it is a sign of being near land." Wafer, in his voyage and description of the isthmus of America, says, "The pelican is not found on the South Sea side of the isthmus, but they abound on the northern side: They are of a dark grey colour, and under the throat hangs a bag: the old ones are not eaten, but the young are good meat." Mr Edwards, in another place, gives the description of a pelican, which he says is double the size of the largest swan. His drawing was made from the pelican shown at London in 1745, which was brought by Capt. Pelly from the Cape of Good Hope, where they are larger than anywhere else. The body, legs, and feet, very much resemble the pelican of America; and it differs little but in the head and neck, which last is very long, like a swan's; the bill is straighter, and the upper part only hooked at the end; the pouch is shaped something different, hanging more down in the middle. Mr Edwards thus describes it. "From the point of the bill to the angle of the mouth is 20 inches of our English measure, which is six inches more than any natural historian has found it; the academy of Paris having measured one which was about 14 inches, Paris measure I suppose; and our countryman, Willoughby, measured one brought from Russia, which he makes 14 inches English. I thought it something incredible in Willoughby's description, that a man should should put his head into the pouch under the bill, till I saw it performed in this bird by its keeper, and am sure a second man's head might have been put in with it at the same time."

The Academy of Paris think the bird they have described is the pelican of Aristotle, and the Onocrotalus of Pliny. They are also confirmed in the opinion that this is a long-lived bird; for, out of a great number kept at Versailles, none had died for more than 12 years, being the only animals kept in the menagerie of which some have not died in that time. Some authors say they live 60 or 70 years.

Capt. Keeling, in his voyage to Sierra Leone, says the pelicans there are as large as swans, of a white colour, with exceeding long bills; and M. Thévenot, in his travels to the Levant, observes, that the pelicans about some part of the Nile near the Red Sea swim by the bank side like geese, in such great numbers that they cannot be counted. Father Morolla, in his voyage to Congo, says pelicans are often met with in the road to Singa, and are all over black, except on their breast, which is of a flesh colour like the neck of a turkey. He adds further, that father Francis de Pavia informed him, that on his journey to Singa he observed certain large white birds, with long beaks, necks, and feet, which, whenever they heard the least sound of an instrument, began immediately to dance, and leap about the rivers, where they always resile, and whereof they were great lovers: this, he said, he took a great pleasure to contemplate, and continued often upon the banks of the rivers to observe.

It would extend our article beyond all proportion, were we to touch on each individual species of this extensive genus, together with their accidental varieties. But as the genus is unquestionably very curious, we shall here subjoin a list of books, which such of our readers as desire it may have recourse to for further information: Edwards's History of Birds; Natural History of Jamaica; Mem. de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, depuis 1666 jusqu'a 1699, tom. 3, troisieme partie, p. 186.; Willoughby; Pennant's British and Arctic Zoology; and Latham's Synopsis of Birds; the last of which is the fullest and most scientific of any we have yet seen.

PELLION (Diodorus Siculus, &c.), Pelios, mons undertwood, (Mela, Virgil, Horace, Seneca), a mountain of Theffaly near Olfa, and hanging over the Sinus Pelagius, or Pegasius; its top covered with pines, the sides with oaks, (Ovid). Said also to abound in wild goats, (Val. Flaccus). From this mountain was cut the spear of Achilles, called pelia, which none but himself could wield, (Homer). Dioclearchus, Aristotle's scholar, found this mountain 1250 paces higher than any other of Theffaly, (Pliny). Pelius, Cicero; Peliacus, (Catullus), the epithet.