| Show lim giov F 4 i the pelican charles F holder the naturalist de scribing a pet pelican which bo ho form orly owned in florida says I 1 can not recall that the pelican ever refused food after the most impossible feeding it had the same dejected half starved attitude and the same asthmatic cry for more it was only after many months that I 1 discovered that the pelican can never be satis fled he thus describes the fishing exploits of these birds in feeding they generally fley flew twenty to thirty feet above the water with rapid mo tion of the powerful wings holding the head slightly upon one side that they might observe the schools of sar dines when the latter were sighted they would plunge blindly downward 0 opening pening the mouth widely just before they reach the water endeavoring in this clumsy manner to catch the fish which not being able to see upward were entirely ignorant of the nearness of danger rising after the plunge the pelican invariably wags his dimina tive tail tall a self congratulatory act which confirms the bird s stupidity for the chanas are one to five th tb t it aas s caught nothing the bills are held bid upward the water allowed to run out of the eno moua pouch and then it any game has been caught the pel can to ss it lt beak upward which throws the fish forwald or toward the point of the beak where it au often held a few seconds from here being dropped as it were into the threat is a very small orifice in a evitable en eri table waste of 0 pouch at this moment perhaps a laugh ng gull robs thi tha th i pelican seme times it alights on its ifs back again on its head and the d bird makes no resistance the gull often uttering ut terin Us its victorious baha ha ha in advance just as the bih is throws thrown to the tip of the beak and protrudes the side the laughing gull leans orward snatches it and rises to in turn be fol lowed by the swift man dfwar bird in th s simple way a pelican will be robbed by she birds and will swallow but a small percentage e ct cf what it catches catch s wa ch ell pos pas ably e plains why it Is always hungry |
