In all these past months we have forgotten to mention an extraordinary bird, the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), found in Galapagos and along the coast of North and South America. What can be better descriptive than the poem of Dixon Merritt (often misattributed to Ogden Nash)?

A wonderful bird is the Pelican,
His bill can hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week;
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.