Pelican (鹈鹕)

Waterfowl, up to two meters in length, with large wings, a long beak with a curved tip, a leathery pouch under the beak, and grayish-white plumage with a few black feathers on the wings. Good at swimming and fishing, the fish caught in the leather pouch. Mostly live in groups on tropical or subtropical coasts. Meat can be eaten, feathers can be used as ornaments. Zhuangzi - Outer Things: "Fish are not afraid of nets, but of pelicans." Three Kingdoms - Wei Zhi - Wendi Ji: "In the fifth month of summer, there were pelicans gathering at Lingzhi Pond." Ming Li Shizhen, "Compendium of Materia Medica - Birds - Pelicans": "Pelicans are found everywhere, and so are waterfowl. It resembles an osprey but is very large and gray like a pale goose. The beak is more than a foot long, straight and wide, the mouth is red, and the beard under the chin is as big as several liters of sacs. Good group flying, submerged in the water to eat fish, but also can exhaust the small water to get fish."

The pelicans are instantly recognizable by the large leather pouch under their beaks. The pelican's beak is more than 30 centimeters long, and the large leather pouch is formed by connecting the lower beak shell to the skin, which can be freely retracted and is where they store their food. Like the cormorant, the pelican is also an excellent fisherman. It is 125-150 centimeters long and has dense, short feathers all over its body, which are peach or light grayish brown. In its short tail feathers have a yellow oil glands, can secrete a lot of oil, leisure time they often use their mouths in the whole body of the feathers coated with this special "cosmetics", so that the feathers become smooth and soft, swimming drops do not stain.

Pelicans often live in groups in the wild, and in addition to swimming every day, most of the time they bask in the sun or patiently comb their feathers on the shore. Pelicans have sharp eyes and are good at swimming and flying. Even when they are flying high in the sky, the fish roaming in the water cannot escape their eyes. If a group of pelicans found fish, they will form a straight line or semi-circular encirclement, the fish to the river bank where the water is shallow, then open the beak, mallard water forward, even with the fish with the water have become its bag, and then close the beak, the contraction of the throat sacs to squeeze the water out of the fish will be swallowed into the abdomen, a beautiful meal.

Every breeding season, the pelican chooses an off-the-beaten-path forest and builds a nest under a tall tree with branches and weeds. Pelicans usually lay three eggs per nest, which are white and the size of a goose egg. The incubation and brooding of the young pelicans is carried out by both parents***. When the baby pelicans hatch, the pelican parents spit out their own semi-digested food in the nest for the baby pelicans to eat. When the baby pelicans are a little older, the parents open their large beaks and allow the baby pelicans to stick their heads into their throat pouches and take their food.