OCR Text |
Show IN THE HOME OF PELICANS Studying the Huge, Ungainly Birds at Close Range and Observing Their Method of Feeding Their Young. Tho first tlmo I eVer saw a motley crowd of halfrgrown pollcans I thought nature had surely dono her best to mnko something ugly and ridiculous, tt was a warm day, and tho birds stood around with their mouths open, panting pant-ing llko a lot of dogs after a chose, their pouches shaking at every breath. When I wont near tho youngsters wont tottering off on their big webbed feet with wings dragging on this side and that ,ns If thoy wero poorly handled crutches. The youngsters huddled together to-gether by hundreds In a small placo. Thoso on tho outside, pushed and climbed t,o get near tho center, till It looked worse than any football scrim-mago scrim-mago I ever saw. In this wldo area of low Islands and water It was necessary, since wo wanted to study tho pelicans at closo rango, to adopt somo method of hiding. hid-ing. Wo took a largo wagon umbrolla covered with a ploco of green canvas, can-vas, that hung down around the sides. This wo planted among tho tulos nt tho edgo of a largo colony, nnd covered cover-ed tho top well with reeds. The wholo thing soon passed as part of tho environment, en-vironment, wllo from tho Inside the camera man could point his camera out through a narrow. slit In tho canvas, can-vas, tako pictures nnd mako observations observa-tions nt will. Ono might wonder how such a huge billed bird as a pelican could feed a helpless chick Just out of tho egg. It was dono with apparent case. The old bird regurgitnted a fishy soup Into tho front end of tho pouch, and the baby pelican pitched right In and helped help-ed himself out of this family dish. As tho young bird grow older, and larger, at each meal ho kept reaching farther Into tho big pouch of his parent until finally, when ho was half grown, It was a most remarkable Bight. The mother opened her mouth, and the wholo head nnd neck of her nestling disappeared down her capacious maw while he hunted for his dinner In the Internal regions. Collier's Monthly. |