to defend." In this scene the Pelican, from its peculiar appearance, was of course a prominent object. The best-known species are--1, the White Pelican; 2, the Crested Pelican; 3, the Brown Pelican; and 4, the Spectacled Pelican. THE WHITE PELICAN. ENGLISH SYNONYM.--White Pelican. LATIN SYNONYMS.--_Pelicanus onocrotalus_: Linn., Temminck, Selby. _P. minor_: Ruppell. FRENCH SYNONYM.--_Pélican Blanc_: Temminck. The White Pelican (_Pelicanus onocrotalus_) is as large as a Swan. Its bill is about fifteen inches in length. Its plumage is white, with a slightly rosy tint, which is brightest in the breeding season; the pinnaries and spurious wings are black; the crest and a few feathers on the neck yellowish. This species received from the ancients the name of _Onocrotalus_, because they fancied that they discovered a resemblance in its cry to the braying of an ass. It is very common on the lakes and rivers of Hungary and Southern Russia, as well as on the banks of the Danube. If it is seen in France, it is purely accidental, as it is a rare visitor. A wild rocky shore, where it can look down on the sea, is the favourite haunt of the Pelican; but it is not uncommon for it to perch on trees. The nest is formed of coarse reedy grass, with a lining of finer quality; it is generally made on the ground, and is about eighteen inches in diameter, in which it lays four, sometimes five, white eggs, but more frequently two, slightly oblong, and alike at both ends. Fish forms its principal food, which it captures chiefly in shallow inlets; for it is no diver, although on the wing it dashes upon a fish occasionally from a great height, and that with such velocity that it submerges itself, but its buoyancy brings it immediately to the surface. Occasionally it flies very high, but it generally just poises itself over the water. Notwithstanding its webbed feet, it often perches on trees--a habit which Sonnerat describes as peculiar to the female in the evening, after having fed and protected her young during the day. THE CRESTED PELICAN. SYNONYMS.--_Pelicanus crispus_: Bonaparte, Temminck, Bruck. Pelican: English authors. _P. onocrotalus_ (var. _Orientalis_): Linn, Pallas, Dalmatian. _Riesen-pelikan_: German authors. The Crested Pelican, in common with the White Pelican, inhabits the south-east of Europe and Africa, and is also found in Hungary, Dalmatia, Greece, the Crimea, and the Ionian Islands, as well as in Algeria, and, according to some authors, it is frequently met with in China. It has white plumage, with the exception that the ends of the feathers of the back and wings are black. The feathers of the head and upper part of the neck are twisted up so as to form a tolerably large tuft or crest: hence the name it bears. Its habitat is principally the marshes round the Black Sea, and the isles adjacent to the mouth of the Danube.