12 KANSAS A CAD -EM Y OF SCIENCE. 



combed with air cells that buoy them up like a cork, and prevent their diving,* 

 neither do they plunge for their food when upon the wing, like their cousins the 

 Brown Pelicans, and therefore have to adopt fishing habits suited to shallow waters. 

 I have often noticed the birds in flocks, pairs, and alone, swimming on the water, 

 with partially-opened wings and head drawn down and back, the bill just clearing 

 the water, ready to strike and gobble up the prey within their reach; if, when so 

 fishing, they ran into a shoal of minnows, would stretch out their necks, drop their 

 heads upon the water, and with open mouths and extended pouches scoop up the 

 tiny fry. Their favorite time for fishing on the sea-shore isduring the incoming 

 tide, as with it come the small fishes to feed upon the insects caught in the rise, 

 and upon the low forms of life in the drift as it washes shoreward, the larger 

 fishes following in their wake, each from the smallest to the largest eagerly en- 

 gaged in taking life in order to sustain life. All sea birds know this, and the time 

 of its coming, well; and the White Pelicans that have been patiently waiting in line 

 along the beach quietly move into the water and glide smoothly out, so as not to 

 frighten the life beneath, and when at a suitable distance from the shore form into 

 line in accordance with the sinuosities of the beach, each facing shoreward and 

 awaiting the signal from their leader to start, upon which all is commotion, the birds 

 rapidly striking the water with their wings, throwing it high above them, and plung- 

 ing their heads in and out, fairly making the water foam, as they move in an almost 

 unbroken line, filling their pouches as they go; and, when satisfied with their catch, 

 they wade and waddle into line again upon the beach, where they remain to rest, 

 standing or sitting as suits them best, until they have leisurely swallowed the fishes in 

 their nets; and then, if undisturbed, generally rise in a flock and circle for a long time 

 high in air. Off the south coast of Florida (a coral formation) the shoal water often 

 extends out for miles, and the tide is scarcely perceptible. There the birds have no 

 occasion to dive, but gather their food by coursing, and in such places the Brown 

 Pelicans, so expert, and in dropping upon their prey in deep water are forced, in or- 

 der to save their necks unbroken, to feed in like manner; this is especially notice- 

 able in the shallow ponds within the Everglades. Several years ago, in the month 

 of September, I had the pleasure of observing a small flock of the birds fishing in 

 the Neosho river, Kansas, when late at eve in their southward flight they were forced 

 by tired wings to stop. The place selected was in still, deep water, at the head of a 

 fall or rapids in the stream, where the water for some fifteen rods, and at a depth 

 of about six inches, was rippling and dashing over the rocks — a natural feeding- 

 ground for the fishes. The birds, after first bathing and dressing up their feathers, 

 giving particular attention to their primaries, would, without any unity of action, 

 as hunger moved them, float down over the rapids, picking up and at the fishes here 

 and there, until the still water below was reached, when they would rise and fly back, 

 to float down again, leisurely repeating this mode of fishing until it was quite dark. 



NOTES ON THE YELLOW-TAILED CASSIQUE. 



{ Gymnostinops moHlezumce.) 



BY X. S. GOSS. 



The birds are known by the natives as the "Oropendula," also as the " Inca bird," 

 but are generally called "Yellow-Tailed Cassiques," or rather, "Yellow-Tails." They 

 are quite common in the low forest lands of Central America, on the Atlantic side, but 



*The statement in " North American Birds — Water Birds," vol.2, page 137, that this species "dive 

 with great celerity," is in error. 



