189. PELECANS, or CORVORANTS, are a tribe of birds distinguished by their bills being hooked at the end, and furnished with a nail at the point and a pouch beneath, and having their face naked.
There are more than thirty known species of pelecans, some of which are found in nearly every part of the world.
Of these the most remarkable species is the great, or White Pelecan (Pelecanus onocrolalus). It is furnished with a bag attached to the lower mandible of its bill, so large as to be capable of containing a great number of fish. On these the pelecan feeds, and, by means of this bag, is enabled to convey them as food for its offspring. We are informed that the inhabitants of Mexico sometimes obtain a supply of fish by cruelly breaking the wing of a live pelecan, and then tying the bird to a tree. Its screams are said to attract other pelecans to the place, which give up a portion of the provisions they have collected to their imprisoned companion. As soon as this is observed the men, who are concealed at a little distance, rush to the spot, and take away all except a small portion, sufficient for the support of the prisoner.
The Chinese train one of the species (Pelecanus sinensis) to catch fish, and the birds are so well trained that they do not appear to swallow any, but such as are given to them for encouragement and food.
190. The Gannet (Pelecanus bassanus, Fig. 51) is a species of pelecan so numerous, and, at the same time, so important to the inhabitants of some parts of Scotland, that, in the island of St. Kilda only, more than 20,000 are said to be annually killed by the inhabitants as food. The young birds, however, alone are eatable; and, to obtain these and the eggs, the bird-catchers undergo the greatest risks. They not only climb the rocks, but even allow themselves to be lowered from the top of the most dangerous precipices, by ropes, to the ledges on which the nests are placed. As gannets and their eggs are a principal support of the inhabitants of St. Kilda throughout the year, they are preserved, for this purpose, in a frozen state, in small pyramidal stone buildings covered with turf and ashes.
CLASS III.—AMPHIBIA.
ORDER I.—REPTILES.
191. The GREEK TORTOISE (Testudo græca) is a species of reptile of dirty yellow and black colour; with four feet, and a somewhat hemispherical shell, consisting of thirteen middle convex pieces, and about twenty-five marginal ones.