224 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

Orpern PALMIPEDES.

Petecanus.—The Pelican. (Plate XV.)

This genus contains several large web-footed birds, re-
siding on rivers, lakes, or the sea-coast, and feeding on fish.
The bill is long, straight, broad and depressed, and furnished
with a large pouch, capable of containing several fish, or a
quantity of water amounting to twenty pints; the face and
throat are bare; the legs short and strong; all the four toes
webbed. Pelicans are gregarious, and the species are widely
distributed, though not very numerous. Broderip says, that
“in feeding their nestlings, the under mandible is pressed
against the neck and breast, to assist the bird in disgorging
the contents of the capacious pouch, and during this action,
the red nail or hook on the upper mandible would appear
to come in contact with the breast, thus laying the founda-
tion, probably, for the fable, that the pelican nourishes her
young with her blood.”

The Common Pelican (Pelecanus Onocrotalus) has the
plumage of a pure white, faintly tinged in parts with pale
rose-colour; the pouch is bright yellow; the length of the
bird is between five and six feet, expanse of the wings
twelve or thirteen. About the middle of September flocks