YOUNG CALIFORNIA BROWN PELICAN TRYING TO SWALLOW A FISH-HEAD. 

 THE GULL APPEARS TO BE AN INTERESTED SPECTATOR 



California Brown Pelicans 



By MRS. F. T. BICKNELL, Los Angeles, Calif. 

 With photographs by the author 



THE modern airship has a rival in the California Brown Pelican when it 

 comes to power, for the sailing and diving maneuvers of this, great 

 bird are well worth a close study. 

 When seen on a 'practice' morning above the ocean at Redondo Beach, 

 they give an excellent demonstration of Nature's engineering. It was my good 

 fortune to witness the wonderful dexterity or winged skill of a fleet of a dozen 

 of these Pelican airships — so slow of movement, awkward and ungainly on 

 shore, but possessed of remarkable wing power. Raising their lumbering weight 

 by a few strokes of the wing, they mounted into the air, where, in single file, 

 they resembled an imposing fleet of warships putting out to sea in defense of 

 their country, the brown plumage with white underparts, blending into the 

 background of the blue-gray sky, giving a half-tone of brownish gray. With 

 the aid of binoculars, I noted the precision in every movement. Three strokes 

 of their powerful wings sent them coasting a long way through the air, with 

 bills extended in a straight line more than fourteen inches beyond their bodies; 

 again, three strokes sent them far enough out to sea to commence their sepa- 

 rate maneuvers of circling and wheeling, with black eyes riveted upon the 

 water, forty or more feet below. 



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