NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PELICAN.
From an English Publication.

Tuppered teen

HE pelican is by far the largest bird of this genus; and is even fize, the swan, and albatrofs: But notwithstanding its fize, the pelican supports itself easily upon the air, and darts with great rapidity upon its prey; being furnished with such enormous wings, that, when these are extended, the breadth of the bird is from ten to twelve feet. It feeds, like the cormorant, upon fish, which it catches by diving: Like that bird, too, it is universally spread over all the warm latitudes, of both the Old and the New continent. In some places, however, pelicans are more numerous, than others; for travellers assert, that the lakes of Judea and Egypt, and the rivers Nile and Strymon, when viewed from the mountains, appear white, with the vast flocks of these birds that continually cover their furface.*

They are seen issuing forth to the tracts where the fish abound, every morning, when they continue rifing up into the air, and diving into the water, by turns, till they have filled the large bag under their chin. After they have thus collected a fufficient store of provifion, they retire to the cliff of some neighbouring rock, till it be digefted. There they remain, slumbering in a profound apathy; till roused, in the evening, by the calls of their voracious appetite, they again refume their labours.t

As in the other birds of this genus, the four toes of the pelican are all directed forward, and completely palmated; the legs and back are of a pale red, varying according to the age of the bird. The latter is of the enormous length of eighteen inches; is thick at the base, but tapers off towards the point, where it terminates in a hook. The under mandible consists of two flexible branches, to each of which are attached the fides of that large bag, which extends from the point of the bill to the throat. This bag, when empty, the bird has a power of contracting into a small fize, under the lower chop; when extended, however, it is capable of containing above ten quarts of water, and will admit a man's leg. This extraordinary pouch confifts of a skin, covered with a short down, fmooth and foft, like filk.

This bag of the pelican may be confidered as its crop; for it serves all the purposes of that intestine in other birds: In them, it is placed at the bottom; but, in this bird, at the top of the gullet, where, having less warmth to aid digestion, the food is carried to the young in a more fresh and found state. In disgorging the food for her family, the mother presses the bottom of her fack upon her breast, and thus discharges its contents; hence the abfurd fable of her opening her breast, and feeding her young with her blood.||

* Belon de nat. av. pag. 153.

+ Vide Labat et Dutertre. $ Adanson's voy. to Senegal, p. 136. § Belon, Gefner.

Nothing can exceed the torpid and indolent habits of these birds, but their gluttony; it is only the powerful stimulation of hunger, that will induce them to change their situation, or ascend into the air. They must, however, fly or starve; and when once they stir abroad, they will devour, at a single meal, as many fish as would fatisfy fix men. They commit prodigious devastation, both upon the fresh water and the fea; and will swallow a fish of eight pounds weight. So great is their voracity, that, on a failure of fish, they will devour rats, and other small quadrupeds.*

The indolent habits of the pelican, characterize every part of its economy. After its evening labours are over, as if spent with the fatigues of the day, it retires to a tree near the shore, on which it perches all night, and often a great part of the following day, in dismal folemnity, and apparently half asleep. The invincible laziness of the female, allows her to make no preparation for incubation, or for the protection of her young, when excluded. She drops her eggs upon the bare ground, to the number of five or fix, without seeming to have any choice in the place where they are laid. Her attachment to the place, and affection for her young, inspire her with no courage in defending her offspring: She tamely fits and suffers her eggs to be taken from under her; or, now and then, ventures to peck, or cry out, when a person offers to beat her away.t

The young, when excluded, are fed with the fish that have been for fome time, macerated in her bag. They are easily tamed; and, whatever food be given them, they always first commit it to the bag, and afterwards swallow it at their leisure. They are both ufeless and disagreeable domestics; for their gluttony is infatiable, and their flesh is so unfavory, as to be rejected and despised by the savages. Great numbers are killed, indeed, by the natives of America, for the fake of their bags, which they convert into purses, and tobacco pouches. When carefully prepared, that membrane becomes as foft, as filk; and is, sometimes, embroidered by the Spanish ladies for work bags. In Egypt, the failors use it, while still attached to the two under chaps, for holding water, or baling their boats.‡

* Vide Bofman, Let. xv. † Goldsmith, vol. vi. p. 56.
‡ Buffon, tome xxiv. page 302.

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Biography and Notices of Celebrated Characters.

ON BIOGRAPHY.

LL history, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, is, in one fenfe, for it is a narration of the conduct and acts of men. Biography, however, in the more strict and confined sense of the word, has many advantages above all other history. In general history the conduct of individuals is portrayed as it were abstractedly, and without constantly bringing forward the individuals them. selves; the conduct of nations is described oftentimes without it's being referred to one prefiding mind, and, in great events, too frequently we do not preferve a sense of individuality of action.

Thus the reader peruses the pages of history without intereft; he places not himfelf in the fituation of him whose actions are thus abstractedly recorded; he is not agitated by his fears, or animated by his hopes; he is not now tortured by suspense, now exulting in triumph; he admires the conduct of the individual, without sympathizing with the man.

But biography brings forward a character, delineates his conduct, describes his circumstances, shows him in moments of defpondency, and in feafons of cheerful hope, now sketching his plans, and now in the ardour of execution; we place ourselves in his condition, we feel all his agitations, and, for the moment, we become what the individual whose life we are perusing was. Hence the superiour power and charm of biography.

Concerning the competency of writers of biography to the task they undertake, it may perhaps be affirmed with trurh, that no man can poffibly furnish the complete life of any other person, and that each individual alone is competent to become his own biographer. You demand the history of the life of a human being? Such a hif tory ought to furnish an account of his actions, his motives, and his means. It should portray his dispositions, his principles, and the way in which they were formed. Who can supply the information necessary for such a task? None, except the individual himself, perhaps not even he. Imperfection is written upon every work of man; and no man ever yet wrote the life of any other person with any tolerable degree of exactness. What have the best biographers shown us? They have detailed a few events, they have narrated certain actions, but they have not given us the history of the man. They have not shown us the yet unformed mind, they have not traced the operation of it's first instruction, they have not stated the influence of it's early impressions, they have not defcribed the emo. tions of the heart, the birth day of intellect, the maturity of genius, the charm of literature, the force of habit, the imperiousness of circumstances; they have not exposed the mysterious links of that chain, which connects the parts of human conduct, and binds to gether the deftinies of life.

What would we not give for the correct history of one intelligent being? What difficulties would it not solve, what doubts would it not diffipate! Liberty, neceffity, virtue, vice, we should then comprehend your meaning, and lay you at rest for ever! But let not man demand what heaven has forbidden, let us be contented with our condition, and feek not to leave our station and rush into the skies.'

The most complete pieces of biography, and the most instructive which modern times have furnished, are those which have been given to us by the individuals whose lives they portray. Rousseau's and Franklin's are, in this class, entitled to diftinguished eminence; and Gibbon's is not unworthy of praise. The next in the order of excellence are those which, though not written by the individuals themselves, are taken from their communications, and furnished by those who had great opportunities of personal and intimate intercourse. Such are Bofwell's life of Johnson, and Johnson's life of Savage. The next species of biograghy which claims our attention is that, which, though not collected from intimate or personal knowledge of the individual, is nevertheless collected from contemporary writers with infinite labour and care, and delivered to us in all the plenitude of variety and the circumstantiality of detail. Of this class of Jortin's life of Erasmus."

This department of our volume we shall devote to details illuftrating the formation of mind, the progress of intellect, the construction of character, the acquirement of talent, and the exertion of genius. Our sketches will fometimes be incomplete, reprefenting only a rough outline or a short section; and sometimes will afford a more full exhibition. A miniature representation of a finished edifice will give more pleasure and instruction, and exhibit a more attractive model for imitation, than the extensive scaffolding of an imperfect building. There can be no improvement in reading the dry chronology of common events; but the movements of mind, the cultivation of abilities, the means of intellectual attainments and the causes of success induce emulation, encourage hope, and invite the paths of merit. Our Biography will be male and female; we humbly hope the FEMALE SEX will constitute a part of our readers; for them literary entertainment will be provided as well as for Gentlemen.

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CHARACTER OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

"From Macedonia's madman to the Swede."

PON this line Dr. Warton in his edition of Pope's Works, wrote the following Note:

"He (Pope) has fallen into the common cant about Alexander the Great. Think of the scene in Darius's tent; of the foundation

of the city of Alexandria, and the extent of its commerce'; of the many colonies he established; of his refusing to treat the Perfians as slaves; of the grief expressed by the Persians at his death; of the encouragement he gave to arts, both useful and elegant; and of his assistance to Aristotle his master, in making experiments and promoting science: the encomiums bestowed on him by two such judges of men as Bacon and Montesquieu, outweigh the cenfures of Boileau and Pope. Charles XII. deserved not to be joined with him: Charles XII. tore out the leaf in which Boileau had cenfured Alexander. Robertson, in his disquifitions on India, has given a fine and comprehenfive view of the very grand design which Alexander had formed to annex that extensive and opulent country to his empire. Section 1. appendix." To consider Alexander merely as a conqueror, is to contemplate him only in his fubordinate character. The extent of his views, and the comprehenfion of his mind, were truly wonderful, and fufficient to place him with the first of human intelligences. The rapidity and the effect, with which he accomplished his great designs, were the just results of that wisdom with which he concerted them. What he achieved was only the means of a greater end, and formed nothing more than a part of one magnificent plan, the full developement of which was preventen by his death. The eyes, therefore, which are confined to his exploits in the field, take in a small portion only of the range of his mind; and may be so far deceived, as to fancy this great instrument of providence on the degraded level of a tartar ravager. Bayle seems to have formed a just idea of the illustrious Macedonian; but they, who are defirous of viewing a more perfect delineation of him, must have recourse to the "Voyage of Nearchus," lately published by the learned and able master of Westminster school. In this work, the claffic reader will find a truer resemblance of the fon of Philip, than is given by any modern writer; and will, at the fame time, be gratified with the display of much accurate erudition in the vehicle of clear and vigorous compofition.

ACCOUNT OF COPERNICUS THE DISCOVERER OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

Extracted from Wraxall's Memoirs.

W HATEVER may be its political fate, the name of Thorn will always recal to the mind a man, whose deep researches afcertained the principle only furmised by antiquity, upon which refts the Newtonian system of philosophy. Nicholas Copernicus, or Kopernic, has immortalized the place of his birth and refidence. Every particular relative to him excites curiofity; and after vifiting his house as well as his tomb, I endeavoured to obtain fome information concerning his family. It is not a little remarkable, that