368 THE WHITE PELICAN 



The others swept on, but they had gone only a few yards 

 when one or two, then dozens and, finally the whole flock 

 turned to follow. It was a fine example of acknowledged 

 leadership. Then with the superb grace, power, and dignity 

 which so distinguishes them when in the air, the birds, on 

 set, expanded wings, began to soar, sweeping in broad cir- 

 cles higher and higher, until from the snow-bank of the prai- 

 ries they faded into a flurry of whirling snowflakes in the 

 clouds. 



We must also accord to Pelicans that respectful atten- 

 tion which is the due of extreme age. Pelicans became Peli- 

 cans long before man became man, a study of the distribu- 

 tion of the eleven existing species leading to the conclusion 

 that at least as late as the latter part of the Tertiary Period, 

 our White Pelican, and doubtless also other species, pre- 

 sented much the same appearance that it does to-day. 



Of the eight Old World species, the one inhabiting south- 

 ern Europe so closely resembles our American White Peli- 

 can, that early ornithologists regarded them as identical. 

 Nevertheless, the localities at which their ranges are near- 

 est, are separated by some 8000 miles. Such close re- 

 semblance, however, is neither an accident of birth or breed- 

 ing. Pelicans did not appear independently in the two 

 hemispheres. Birds so like each other and so unlike other 

 existing birds, must have had a common ancestry. Common 

 ancestry implies, at some time, continuity of range, and with 

 the European and American White Pelicans, we may well 

 believe this to have occurred in that later portion of the Ter- 

 tiary Period, when a warm-temperate, or even sub- tropical 

 circumpolar climate existed. At this time, the Pelican, from 

 which we assume that the European and American White 

 Pelicans have both descended, inhabited the shores of the 

 Arctic Ocean. 



Eventually, by those climatic changes resulting from a 

 continuously decreasing amount of heat, and culminating in 

 the Ice Age, the individuals of this hypothetical Polar Peli- 



