In spite of its great size, the Pelican flies easily and to considerable distances. It does not dive but will occasionally dash down on Fish from a considerable height, and with such force that it becomes submerged; but its buoyancy instantly brings it again to the surface. It perches on trees, but seems to prefer rocks.
The nest is generally formed of coarse, reedy grass, lined with softer material and placed in the clefts of dry rocks near the water. Occasionally they will lay in an indentation in the ground which they have previously roughly lined with blades of grass.
The Pelican is more common in tropical regions than in temperate climates. They are very numerous in Africa, Siam, Madagascar, the Sunda Isles, the Philippines; and in the Western Hemisphere they abound from the Antilles to the northern temperate part of the North American continent. They haunt the neighborhood of rivers and lakes and the sea-coast.
The best known species are—first, the Crested Pelican; second, the White Pelican; third, the Brown Pelican; fourth, the Spectacled Pelican.
THE CRESTED PELICAN.
The Crested Pelican in common with the White Pelican, inhabits the southeast 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 large tuft or crest, hence the name it bears. Its European home is principally the marshes round the Black Sea.
Of their modes of life travelers in those regions give very interesting descriptions.
“Nowadays,” says W. H. Simpson, “a solitary individual may be seen fishing here and there throughout this vicinity; the remnant have betaken themselves to the neighboring islands. Here, towards the end of February last, the community constituted a group of seven nests—a sad falling off from the year before, when thirty-four nests were grouped upon a neighboring islet.
“As we approached the spot in a boat the Pelicans left their nests, and taking to the water, sailed away like a fleet of stately ships, leaving their nursery in possession of the invader. The boat grounded in two or three feet of mud, and when the party had floundered through this, the seven nests were found to be empty. A fisherman had plundered them that morning, taking from each nest one egg, which we afterwards recovered. The nests were constructed in a great measure of old reed palings (used by the natives for enclosing Fish) mixed with such pieces of the vegetation of the islet as were suitable for the purpose. The seven nests were arranged in the shape of an irregular cross, the navel of the cross, which was the tallest nest, being about thirty inches high, the two next in line being about two feet, and the two forming the arms being a few inches lower, the two extremes at either end being about fourteen inches from the ground. The eggs are chalky, like others of the Pelican family, very rough in texture.”