UNIV. OF

CALIFORNIA

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

EGYPTIAN PELICAN.

In the Pelicans the two sexes are coloured alike. 449 57

THE PELICAN TRIBE.

The members of the Pelican Tribe may be readily distinguished from other living birds by the fact that all their toes are united in a common fold of skin or web. In the Ducks and other web-footed birds only the front toes are so united. The Pelican Tribe embraces several apparently dissimilar forms, whose only claim to be grouped together, judged from a superficial point of view, lies in the fact that they possess the peculiar type of foot above mentioned. With the general appearance of the Pelican itself probably every one is familiar, but we had better mention here that the other representatives of the group with which we have now to deal are the Cormorants

Photo by the Duchess of Bedford] [ Woburn Abbey. and Grannets, common on the CRESTED PELICAN. British coasts, and the less-known curled This bird derives its name from the curiously feathers on the top of the head and Darters, Frigate-birds, and Tropic- of the neck. nape birds; these, as we know from their anatomy, are all closely allied forms, and with the Pelicans make up a somewhat isolated group whose nearest allies appear to be the members of the Stork Tribe.

The PELICAN figures largely in ecclesiastical heraldry as the type of maternal tenderness. Tradition has it that the bird, in admonishing its young, occasionally did so with such violence as to slay them. Remorse immediately following, the distracted parent drew blood from its own breast, and therewith sprinkled the victims of its wrath, which thereupon became restored to life again. The exhaustion following on this loss of blood was so great that the young had perforce to leave the nest to procure food for themselves and the sinking parent. If any, through lack of filial affection, refused to aid in this good work, the mother, on recovering strength, drove them from her presence, but the faithful children she permitted to follow her wherever she went.

One of the most remarkable features of the pelican is the pouch which hangs suspended from the under side of the beak. This is capable of great distension, and is used, when fishing, as a sort of bag-net, of which the upper jaw serves as the lid. The young are fed by the female, which, pressing her well-filled pouch against her breast, opens her mouth and allows them to take their fill therefrom.

Pelicans display great sagacity when fishing, a flock often combining to form a horseshoe, and, driving the fish into a mass, take their fill. This method, of course, is only possible when fishing in the estuaries of rivers or lakes, where the fish can be " rounded up," so to speak. Clumsy as the pelican looks, it is yet capable of wonderful powers of flight; indeed, it shares the honour with the vultures, storks, and adjutants as an expert in the peculiar form of flight known as " soaring."

A North American species of pelican is remarkable in that during the breeding-season the beak is ornamented with a peculiar horny excrescence, which is shed as soon as that period is over.

Storks, Herons, and Pelican Tribe 451

Pelicans are natives of the tropical and temperate regions of the Old and New Worlds, and live in flocks often numbering many thousands. The nest is placed on the ground, and therein are deposited two white eggs. The young are helpless for some time after hatching.

In all some six-and-thirty species of CORMORANTS are known to science, of which two are commonly to be met with round the British coasts, one of which also travels inland to establish itself on such lakes and rivers as may afford it support. In various parts of the world cormorants are fish:taken when young and trained to catch sometimes for sport, or as in China to furnish a livelihood for their owners. At one time the Master of the Cormorants was one of the officers in the Eoyal Household of England, the post Photo by V. Le Souef] [Melbourne. I. The YOUNG AUSTRALIAN PELICAN.having been created in 1611 by James cormorants, are hatched perfectly naked: After fastening Pelicans, like gannets andmethod of hunting is as follows and quite blind. a ring around the neck, the bird is cast off into the water, and, diving immediately, makes its way beneath the surface with incredible speed, and, seizing one fish after another, rises in a short space of time with its mouth full and throat distended by the fish, which it has been unable to swallow by reason of the restraining its keeper, who deftly removes the fish, andring. With these captures it dutifully returns to either returns the bird to the water, or, giving it a share of the spoil, restores it to its perch.

Cormorants nest either in trees or on the ground; they lay from four to six eggs, and the young feed themselves by thrusting their heads far down the parents' throats and helping themselves to the half-digested fish which they find there.

The cormorant has a certain sinister appearance equalled by no other bird, so that its introduction in Milton's "Paradise " Lost (Book IV., 1 94) seems particularly appropriate. Satan, it will be remembered, is likened to a cormorant:

So clomb this first grand Thief into God's fold-

Thence up he flew, and in the Tree of Life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant.

The curious bottle-green plumage, hooked beak, and green eyes, long head surmounted by a crest of the smaller sea-loving representative of the two British species were doubtless familiar enough to Milton before blindness overtook him. Some of our readers may have

Photo by IF. Samite-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea. made the acquaintance of the cor- YOUNG PELICANS. morant's nearest ally, the DARTER, or

Young pelicans never develop long down-feathers, like gannets and frigate-birds. SNAKE-NECK, in the Fish-house at the

of the World452 The Living Animals

Zoological Gardens of London. For the sake of those who have not, we may say that the darter may be described as a long-necked cormorant, with somewhat lighter plumage. The head is small and flat, and armed with a pointed, dagger-like bill, whose edges are finely is very long and slender;toothed, with needle-like points projecting backwards. The neck hence its name of Snake-neck. Furthermore, it is remarkable for a very strange " kink," formed by a peculiar arrangement of the neck-bones an arrangement intimately associated its prey, which, as with the cormorant, is pursuedwith its peculiar method of capturing under water. How dexterously this is done may be seen any day in the Fish-house at the Zoological Gardens, where, as we have already mentioned, these birds are kept. At feeding-time they are turned loose into a large tank into which a number of small fish have been placed. The birds dive as soon as they reach the water, and with surprising speed chase their prey till within short range. Then, by a sudden bayonet-like lunge, made in the neck, possible by the peculiar " kink " a victim is transfixed, brought to the surface, released from the bill by a series of sudden jerks, tossed into the air, and dexterously caught and swallowed. The darter is found in Africa, India, the Malay region, Australia, and South America, frequenting the banks of rivers, lakes, and swamps, sometimes singly, sometimes in pairs or in immense flocks. Very different from either of the foregoing species, both in build and coloration, is the GANNET. In its habits it is also different. The adult bird is about the size of a goose, white in colour, and armed with a powerful pointed bill. The young have a quite distinct plumage, being deep brown, speckled with white, this livery being worn for nearly three years. The greater part of a gannet's lifetime seems to be spent upon the wing, a fact which implies a very different method of feeding from that followed by the cormorant

Photo by SchoKutic Photo. Co.] parson's Green. and darter; and this is actually the case. Preying upon.,, shoals,., of, herring,.,.. mackerel, In the spring a slight crest is developed, and a white patch appears on the thigh. sprats, or pilchards, the birds, flying singly or in flocks, as soon as the fish are discovered, rise, soar in circles to such a height as experience shows best calculated to carry them by a downward motion to the required depth, and then, partially closing the wings, plunge upon their prey, and rarely without success, the time which elapses between the plunge is a reallyand the immersion being about fifteen seconds. A flock of gannets feeding wonderful sight, and can be witnessed in many places around the British coasts, for the off the Cornishgannet is one of the very common British birds. The pilchard-fishermen coast learn when the shoals are at hand, and the direction in which they are travelling,

,by the actions of these birds. is sometimes practised upon the A very cruel experiment is tied to a beam andgannet, based upon its well-known method of fishing. A herring its usual velocity upon theset adrift, and the bird, not noticing the trap, plunges with

By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild}

FRIGATE-BIRDS AT HOME.

The feathers of frigate-birds are used for head-dresses in the Pacific Islands.

433

By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild}

of the World454 The Living Animals

fish, with the result that it is killed instantly by the shock of the contact. Grannets breed in colonies of thousands on the islands off the east and west coasts of Scotland. They lay but a single egg, in a nest composed of seaweed deposited in inaccessible crags of first naked; precipitous cliffs. The young are at later they become clothed with long white down. " At one time," says Mr. Howard Saunders, " young gannets were much esteemed as food, from 1,500 to 2,000 being taken in a season during the month of August. They are hooked up, killed, and flung into the sea, where a boat is waiting to pick up the bodies. These are plucked, cleaned, and half roasted, after which they are sold at from

Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.

YOUNG GANNETS, FIRST YEAR.

The plumage at this stage is very dark brown, each feather being tipped with white.

... The fat iseightpence to a shilling each. boiled down into oil, and the feathers, after being well baked, are used for stuffing beds, about a hundred birds producing a stone of feathers." Gannets present one or two structural peculiarities of sufficient interest to mention here. In most birds, it will be remembered, the nostrils open on each side of the beak; but in the gannet no trace of true nostrils remains; and the same may almost be said of the cormorant and darter.

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