40 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



three or four feet apart, moving very much as a company 

 of soldiers would move in making a charge. When they 

 came to where the water was shallow they evidently began 

 to see fish, or now they quickened their pace, and began 

 beating the water with their great wings, making it splash 

 in every direction as all bore down toward this shallow 

 point. We watched in breathless interest until they drove 

 down to where the water was scarcely deep enough to swim 

 in, when suddenly they ceased their rapid advance and 

 begun scooping their great bills down into the water. A 

 pelican would use his bill as I would use a small net when 

 catching minnows. Making a rapid scoop through the 

 water, then closing the bill just tightly enough that no 

 fish could escape, would raise his head and allow the 

 water to run out. Then he would swallow the fish he had 

 caught and make another scoop. 



They worked very rapidly for ten or fifteen minutes, 

 moving forward to the very point of the little neck of water. 

 Of course I never know how many fish they caught, 

 but I knew the trick they had practised very well, for we 

 small boys had learned that when we wished to catch fish 

 in a minnow seine, if we formed in line across a stream and 

 move forward, splashing the water and making a com- 

 motion, the frightened fish would run ahead, and when 

 the proper time came we could use our coffee sack seine 

 and catch dozens of minnows. It seemed wonderful to us 

 that these birds should have learned this trick and were 

 wise enough to work in concert. 



By the time the birds had chased the minnows down 

 into the lower end of the pond and our curiosity had been 

 satisfied by watching them fish, they were out of range of 

 our old army musket, which had been reamed out to make 



