LIFE HISTOEIES OF NOETH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 287 



had it not been for his fluttering wings. He renuiiued buried in the depths 

 for about two minutes, eating everything he could find. Nor did lie withdraw 

 from tlie family cupboard voluntarily, but when the supply was exhausted or 

 the mother thought he had enough she began slowly to rise and .struggle to 

 regain her upright position. The youngster was loath to come out and, flapping 

 his ■wings, he tried in every way to hold on as she began shaking bacic and 

 forth. Tlie mother shook around over 10 or 12 feet of ground till she literally 

 swung the young bird off: his feet and sent him sprawling over on the dry tules. 



Rev. S. H. Goodwin (1904) has published the following interest- 

 ing account of the behavior of young white pelicans : 



Young pelicans must certainly be given a prominent place in tlie front rank 

 of the ridiculous and grotesque in bird life. Their excessively fat, squabby 

 bodies, the under parts of which are bare, while the upper parts are covered 

 witli a wool-like coating, hardly distinguishable from that on the back of a 

 four weeks' old lamb ; these bodies set on a pair of legs, of the use of which 

 the youngsters seem to have no clear notion, so that when they undertake to 

 move about they wobble and teeter and balance themselves with their short, 

 unfledged wings, often tumbling over; many of them (on this occasion) with 

 their mandibles parted, and panting like a dog after a long run on a hot day, 

 the pouch hanging limp and flablty, like an empty sack, shaken by every 

 breath — form, appearance, movement, all combined to make these birds ab- 

 surdly ridiculous. 



When we approached these birds, those nearest the water would not move an 

 inch, while those nearest us in their frantic endeavor to get away would try 

 to climb up and over the struggling, squirming mass in front of them, some- 

 times succeeding, but oftener rolling back to the ground where, not infrequently 

 they alighted upon their backs, and lay helplessly beating their wings and 

 kicking their feet in the air — after the fashion of some huge beetle — till they 

 were helped to right themselves. When left to themselves, not a few of these 

 birds would " sit down," just as a dog sits on his haunches, the wings some- 

 times hanging limp at the sides, at others folded back. The larger part of 

 them, however, simply squatted in the usual manner. They made no sound, 

 save when we attempted to drive them, when an occasional puppy-like grunt 

 would be heard, as if some hapless youngster had fallen or been trodden upon. 



As the young pelicans increase in size they are fed more and more 

 on solid food which consists wholly of fish. Mr. John F. Ferry 

 (1910) says of the food of the young "Sometimes they disgorged 

 the contents of their pouches, usually a mass of salamanders {Nec- 

 turus maculatus), though occasionally a 'jock-fish' (one of them 

 was about a foot long), and some brook sticklebacks {Eucolia incon- 

 stam).'''' As is generally the case with the larger birds, pelicans 

 are not at all solicitous for the welfare of their eggs or young; they 

 seem to think only of their own safety. If pelicans and eagles were 

 half as aggressive as humming birds or thrushes, collecting their eggs 

 would be a hazardous undertaking; but fortunately for the collectors 

 and for predatory gulls the white pelicans promptly depart and 

 leave their nests to be despoiled. 



Plumages. — From the naked stage of nativity the young pelican 

 develops rapidly in size and soon begins to acquire its downy cover- 



