THE PELIOAN. 225

of pelicans repair to Egypt, but during the summer months
- they take up their abode on the shores of the Black Sea and
in Greece; very rarely they are seen in France, but never
in England. They breed in marshy districts, making a large
nest of aquatic plants, lined with soft grass; the eggs are
two in number, white, and equally round at both ends; the
female feeds her young with fish, that has been macerated
in her pouch: they are distinguished from the parent birds
by a prevalence of ash-colour in their plumage.

The pelican is mentioned amongst the forbidden birds in
Leviticus xi., and again in Psalm cii. as an emblem of de-
solation, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like
an owl of the desert,” which agrees admirably with the well-
known habits of the bird. Captain Flinders thus describes
the pelicans which he saw while on his voyage of discovery,
at “ Terra Australis :”—“ Flocks of the old birds were sit-
ting on the beaches of the lagoon, and it appeared that the
islands were their breeding-places; not only so, but from
the number of bones and skeletons there scattered, it would
seem that they had for ages been selected for the closing
scene of their existence. Certainly none more likely to be
free from disturbance of every kind, could have been chosen,
than these islets in a hidden lagoon of an uninhabited island,

a