Pelican

a family of maritime and fresh water fish-pursuing birds. They nest and feed in colonies. The white pelican breeds from Minnesota northward and winters on the Gulf. It is magnificent bird, sixty inches in length, with black wing coverts and white, snowy plumage. Unlike the cormorant the pelican is fond of shallow water. A minnow or fish is caught, tossed into the air, and caught again head first, when it slips into a deep pouch under the lower mandible. This pouch serves to carry fish to the nest or on a journey. It is a place of storage,--not a crop as many have thought. See Cormorant