THE OOLOQI8T 



177 



ply. These animals have a shelled 

 back and tail; the under parts is skin 

 with hair. They have feet shaped like 

 a chicken. The dogs have a tough 

 time killing these animals We have 

 one dog that would run up to them and 

 turn them over and catch him in the 

 belly and shake him to death. These 

 animals raise from four to eight young 

 in April. 



Mrs. Ramon Graham of Ft. Worth, 

 Texas, reports finding a brass pin 

 sticking one half way through the wall 

 of the gizard of a Mallard Duck she 

 was cleaning which also contained a 

 few water grass seeds and some long 

 stringy grass, as well as fifteen small 

 pebbles of different kinds and colors. 



She and her husband have in con- 

 finement a White Pelican, that when 

 it sleeps on the ground sits down 

 and turns its head down toward the 

 tail, buries its bill and sides of its 

 head under the large feathers on the 

 back between the wings leaving noth- 

 ing but the top of the head and side 

 of the head down to the lower part of 

 the eyes exposed. 



The books says that these Pelicans 

 have wliite eyes but the dealers in 

 taxidermist's supplies send yellow 

 eyes for mounted Pelicans, bu^ this 

 kind of bird has black eyes. 



She also reports the method adopted 

 by the soldiers in camp, in Florida 

 during the war to catch the Brown 

 Pelican wliich is a common bird there, 

 as follows: 



The Pelicans and water birds were 

 plentiful and we enjoyed them as they 

 would fly by and dive after fish. One 

 day we thought we would have some 

 fun with them, so we caught some 

 nice looking fish and tacked them to a 

 board and set the board in the water 

 cut some distance from shore. It be- 

 gan to float with the waves and some 

 Pelicans flew over it. All at once one 

 made a dive, then another and they 

 hit the board that had the fish on it. 



This stunned them and we went out 

 and caught them. They made fine 

 pets and soon became as tame as 

 chickens. One soldier was asked how 

 they thought of such a trick and why 

 did they do it. He spoke up and said, 

 "Well, the law won't let us shoot one 

 and we wanted a pet or mascot, so 

 the idea came to our heads after 

 watching the big birds dive after fish." 



"THE TURKEY AND THE BLACK 

 VULTURE" 



By Geo. E. Maxon, U. S. Deputy Game 

 Warden, Fort Worth, Texas 



About the latter part of March or 

 the first of April is a time that I al- 

 ways look forward to. For on that 

 date I can usually be found in the 

 field after the Black and Turkey Vul- 

 tures. In this location I consider the 

 bird men lucky, when it comes to Vul- 

 tures. 



Just north of Ft. W^orth, about 18 

 miles, with 18 miles of paved road can 

 be found as pretty Vulture breeding 

 grounds as has been my good fortune 

 to find. 



And each year finds me searching 

 the crest of the old familiar hills in 

 quest of Vultures. The hills have a 

 very peculiar formation, for situated 

 about five feet from the crest of the 

 hill, a strata of rock sticks out, any- 

 where from six inches to two feet 

 thick. Time has helped also to make 

 it an ideal nesting grounds. In some 

 places where the earth has been 

 washed out too far to support the 

 ledge, it has broken off and forms 

 natural caves under the rocks for sev- 

 eral yards in some places. 



Each year I motor out to the breed- 

 ing grounds and make my start from 

 the same location. Starting at ledge 

 at the smallest hill it is a very easy 

 job to walk along the top of the ledge 

 and watch ahead of you for Mrs. Vul- 

 ture to flush. Only on one occasion 



