the feathers externally, and this natural lining more internally, they are better defended against the changes or the inclemencies of the weather than any other class whatever.

As among land birds there are some found fitted entirely for depredation, and others for a harmless method of subsisting upon vegetables, so also among these birds there are tribes of plunderers, that prey not only upon fish, but sometimes upon water fowl themselves. There are likewise more inoffensive tribes, that live upon insects and vegetables only. Some water fowls subsist by making sudden stoops from above, to seize whatever fish comes near the surface; others again, not furnished with wings long enough to fit them for flight, take their prey by diving after it to the bottom.

From hence all water fowl naturally fall into three distinctions. Those of the gull kind, that, with long legs and round bills, fly along the surface to seize their prey: those of the penguin kind, that, with round bills, legs hid in the abdomen, and short wings, dive after their prey; and thirdly, those of the goose kind, with flat broad bills, that lead harmless lives, and chiefly subsist upon insects and vegetables.

These are not speculative distinctions, made up for the arrangement of a system, but they are strongly and evidently marked by nature. The gull kind are active and rapacious, constantly, except when they breed, keeping upon the wing, fitted for a life of rapine, with sharp straight bills for piercing, or hooked at the end for holding their fishy prey. In this class we may rank the Albatross, the Cormorant, the Ganet or Soland Goose, the Shag, the Frigatebird, the Great Brown Gull, and all the lesser tribe of gulls and sea swallows.

The Penguin kind, with appetites as voracious, bills as sharp, and equally eager for prey, are yet un

qualified to obtain it by flight. Their wings are short, and their bodies large and heavy, so that they can neither run nor fly. But they are formed for diving in a very peculiar manner. Their feet are placed so far backward, and their legs so hid in the abdomen, that the slightest stroke sends them head foremost to the bottom of the water. To this class we may refer the Penguin, the Auk, the Skout, the Seaturtle, the Bottle-nose, and the Loon.

The Goose kind are easily distinguishable by their flat broad bills, covered with a skin; and their manner of feeding, which is mostly upon vegetables. In this class we may place the Swan, the Goose, the Duck, the Teal, the Widgeon, and all their numerous varieties.

In describing the birds of these three classes, I will put the most remarkable of each class at the beginning of their respective tribes, and give their separate history; then, after having described the chiefs of the tribe, the more ordinary sorts will naturally fall in a body, and come under a general description behind their leaders. But before I offer to pursue this methodical arrangement, I must give the history of a bird, that, from the singularity of its conformation, seems allied to no species, and should therefore be separately described-I mean the Pelican.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE PELICAN.

THE Pelican of Africa is much larger in the body than a swan, and somewhat of the same shape and colour. Its four toes are all webbed together, and

its neck in some measure resembles that of a swan: but that singularity in which it differs from all other birds is in the bill, and the great pouch underneath, which are wonderful and demand a distinct description. This enormous bill is fifteen inches from the point to the opening of the mouth, which is a good way back behind the eyes. At the base the bill is somewhat greenish, but varies towards the end, being of a reddish-blue. It is very thick in the beginning, but tapers off to the end, where it hooks downwards. The under chap is still more extraordinary; for to the lower edges of it hangs a bag, reaching the whole length of the bill to the neck, which is said to be capable of containing fifteen quarts of water. This bag the bird has a power of wrinkling up into the hollow of the under chap; but by opening the bill, and putting one's hand down into the bag, it may be distended at pleasure. The skin of which it is formed will then be seen of a bluish ash-colour, with many fibres and veins running over its surface. It is not covered with feathers, but a short downy substance as smooth and as soft as satin, and is attached all along the under edges of the chap, to be fixed backward to the neck of the bird by proper ligaments, and reaches near half way down. When this bag is empty it is not seen; but when the bird bas fished with success, it is then incredible to what an extent it is often seen dilated. For the first thing the pelican does in fishing is to fill up the bag, and then it returns to digest its burden at leisure. When the bill is opened to its widest extent, a person may run his head into the bird's mouth, and conceal it in this monstrous pouch, thus adapted for very singular purposes. Yet this is nothing to what Ruysch assures us, who avers that a man has been seen to hide his whole leg, boot and all, in the monstrous jaws of one of these animals. At first appearance this would