Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5)

by John James Audubon

Being anxious, when on my last expedition, to procure several specimens of these birds for the purpose of presenting you with an account of their anatomical structure, I requested all on board our vessel to shoot them on all occasions; but no birds having been procured, I was obliged to set out with a “select party” for the purpose. Having heard some of the sailors say that large flocks of White Pelicans had been seen on the inner islets of Barataria Bay, within the island called Grande Terre, we had a boat manned, and my friend Edward Harris, my son, and myself, went off in search of them. After a while we saw large flocks of these birds on some grounded logs, but found that it was no easy matter to get near them, on account of the shallowness of the bay, the water being scarcely two feet in depth for upwards of half a mile about us. Quietly, and with all possible care, we neared a flock; and strange it was for me to be once more within shooting distance of White Pelicans. It would no doubt be a very interesting sight to you, were you to mark the gravity and sedateness of some hundreds of these Pelicans, closely huddled together on a heap of stranded logs, or a small bank of racoon oysters. They were lying on their breasts, but as we neared them they all arose deliberately to their full height. Some, gently sliding from the logs, swam off towards the nearest flock, as unapprehensive of danger as if they had been a mile distant. But now their bright eyes were distinctly visible to us, our guns, charged with buckshot, were in readiness, and my son was lying in the bow of the boat waiting for the signal. “Fire!”—The report is instantly heard, the affrighted birds spread their wings and hurry away, leaving behind three of their companions floating on the water. Another shot from a different gun brought down a fourth from on wing; and as a few were scampering off wounded, we gave chase, and soon placed all our prizes in the after sheets. About a quarter of a mile farther on, we killed two, and pursued several that were severely wounded in the wing, but they escaped, for they swam off so rapidly that we could not propel our boat with sufficient force amidst the tortuous shallows. The Pelicans appeared tame, if not almost stupid; and at one place, where there were about sixty on an immense log, could we have gone twenty yards nearer, we might have killed eight or ten at a single discharge. But we had already a full cargo, and therefore returned to the vessel, on the decks of which the wounded birds were allowed to roam at large. We found these Pelicans hard to kill, and some which were perforated with buckshot did not expire until eight or ten minutes after they were fired at. A wonderful instance of this tenacity of life was to be seen on board a schooner then at anchor in the harbour. A Pelican had been grazed on the hind part of the head with an ounce ball from a musket, and yet five days afterwards it was apparently convalescent, and had become quite gentle. When wounded, they swim rather sluggishly, and do not attempt to dive, or even to bite, like the Brown Pelicans, although they are twice as large, and proportionally stronger. After being shot at, they are perfectly silent, but when alighted they utter a hollow guttural sound somewhat resembling that produced by blowing through the bung-hole of a cask.

The White Pelicans appear almost inactive during the greater part of the day, fishing only soon after sunrise, and again about an hour before sunset; though at times the whole flock will mount high in the air, and perform extended gyrations in the manner of the Hooping Crane, Wood Ibis, and Vultures. These movements are probably performed for the purpose of assisting their digestion, and of airing themselves, in the higher and cooler regions of the atmosphere. Whilst on the ground, they at times spread their wings to the breeze, or to the rays of the sun; but this act is much more rarely performed by them than by the Brown Pelicans. When walking, they seem exceedingly awkward, and like many cowardly individuals of our own species, are apt to snap at objects which they appear to know perfectly to be so far superior to them as to disdain taking notice of them. Their usual manner of flight is precisely similar to that of our Brown species. It is said by authors that the White Pelican can alight on trees; but I have never seen a single instance of its doing so. I am of opinion that the ridge projecting from the upper mandible increases in size as the bird grows older, and that it uses that apparatus as a means of defence or of attack, when engaged with its rivals in the love-season.

The number of small fishes destroyed by a single bird of this species may appear to you, as it did to me, quite extraordinary. While I was at General Hernandez’s plantation in East Florida, one of them chanced to pass close over the house of my generous host, and was brought dead to the ground. It was not a mature bird, but apparently about eighteen months old. On opening it, we found in its stomach several hundreds of fishes, of the size of what are usually called minnows. Among the many which I have at different times examined, I never found one containing fishes as large as those commonly swallowed by the Brown species, which, in my opinion, is more likely to secure a large fish by plunging upon it from on wing, than a bird which must swim after its prey.

This beautiful species,—for, Reader, it is truly beautiful, and you would say so were you to pick it up in all the natural cleanness of its plumage, from the surface of the water,—carries its crest broadly expanded, as if divided into two parts from the centre of the head. The brightness of its eyes seemed to me to rival that of the purest diamond; and in the love season, or the spring of the year, the orange-red colour of its legs and feet, as well as of the pouch and bill, is wonderfully enriched, being as represented in my plate, while during the autumnal months these parts are pale. Its flesh is rank, fishy, and nauseous, and therefore quite unfit for food, unless in cases of extreme necessity. The idea that these birds are easily caught when gorged with fish, is quite incorrect, for when approached, on such an occasion, they throw up their food, as Vultures are wont to do.

I regret exceedingly that I cannot say any thing respecting their nests, eggs, or young, as I have not been in the countries in which they are said to breed.

Pelecanus Americanus.

Adult Male. Plate CCCXI.

Bill a little more than thrice the length of the head, rather slender, almost straight, depressed. Upper mandible linear, depressed, convex at the base, gradually flattened and a little enlarged to near the end, when it again narrows, and terminates in a hooked point. The ridge is broad and convex at the base, becomes gradually narrowed and flattened beyond the middle, is elevated into a thin crest about an inch high, of a fibrous structure, and about three inches in length (in some specimens as much as five inches) which is continued forwards of less elevation to the extent of an inch farther. The ridge of the mandible is then narrow and flat, and terminates in the unguis, which is oblong, slightly carinate above, curved, obtuse, concave beneath. The edges are very sharp and a little involute; the lower surface of the mandible has a median slender sharp ridge, on each side of which, at the distance of a quarter of an inch is a stronger ridge having a groove in its whole length; the sides then slope upwards to the incurved margin, and in this latter space is received the edge of the other mandible. Lower mandible having its crura separated, very slender, elastic, and meeting only at the very extremity, so that the angle or interspace may be described as extremely long, occupying in fact the whole length of the bill excepting four-twelfths of an inch at the end; for two-thirds of its length from the base, the lower mandible is broader than the upper, which is owing to the crura lying obliquely, but beyond the crest it is narrower; the extremely short dorsal line ascending, convex, the edges inflected, sharp, and longitudinally grooved. To the lower mandible, in place of the skin or membrane filling up the angle in most other birds, is appended a vast sac seven inches in depth opposite the base of the bill, and extending down the throat about eight inches, so that its length from the tip of the lower mandible is twenty-one and a half inches. It is formed of the skin, which is thin, transparent, elastic, rugous, highly vascular, and capable of being expanded like a net, supported by the elastic mandibles to the breadth of nine and a half inches.

Head small, oblong; neck long, stout; body full, rather flattened. Feet short and very stout; tibia bare at its lower part, covered all round with small scales; tarsus short, very stout, compressed, covered all round with hexagonal scales, of which the anterior are much larger; toes in the same plane, all connected by reticulated webs, the first shortest, the second an inch shorter than the fourth, which is considerably longer than the third, scaly at the base, scutellate over the rest of their extent. Claws short, strong, curved, rather blunt, that of the middle toe with a sharp pectinate inner edge.

Feathers of the head and neck exceedingly small, slender, and of a downy texture, those on the fore part of the head a little more compact; on the nape they are elongated, acuminate, and form a longitudinal narrow crest, which runs down the back of the neck. The feathers in general are lanceolate, acuminate, and of moderately dense texture; those at the junction of the neck and breast anteriorly are stiffer and more elongated. Wings very long, rather narrow, rounded; the humerus and cubitus very long in proportion; primaries much curved; secondaries rather narrow, also incurved toward the end, the inner extending when the wing is closed far beyond the tips of the primaries. Tail short, broad, rounded, of twenty-four feathers, which are broad and abruptly acuminate.