THE PELICANS 



215 



Man of course is not the only enemy of the cormorant. Southwell 

 (1904) records that a hump-backed whale [Megaptera novaeangliae) 

 was "found dead after indulging too freely in cormorants," having 

 swallowed six and choked on the seventh. There is also a record of an 

 angler- fish which had attempted to swallow a cormorant; the strength 

 and buoyancy of the cormorant had raised both to the surface, where 

 they were captured, but the cormorant did not long survive its wounds. 

 Cormorants have also been taken by cod, angel-fish and pike (p .114). 



Cormorants have been exploited by man for several centuries, 

 the Chinese breeding and training them to catch fish, on a commercial 

 scale, usually in daylight; the birds are free to work in packs together 

 in shallow water and are taught to return, each to its own perch on 

 its owner's boat. The Japanese control their trained cormorants with 

 reins attached to neck-rings, and work at night, using flares to attract 

 the fish. The collection of the guano of pelicans and cormorants forms 

 a major industry on islands off the west coast of South America. The 

 droppings of double-crested cormorants roosting on racks along the 

 shore of California are also collected to be used as fertiliser. Gannet- 

 guano is regularly collected on islands off Cape of Good Hope, South 

 Africa. An important account of guano is given by Hutchinson (1950). 



The true pelicans are never found far from the land in the North 

 Atlantic, and therefore need not be considered in detail here. Pelecanus 

 rufescens is the only breeding pelican on the east side, where it frequents 

 estuaries, bays and lagoons, and nests in water-side trees. This is 

 the grey or pink-backed pelican : it can drive fish downstream in a 

 river, corner and devour them in shallow water. On the west side 

 of the Atlantic is P, occidentalism the brown pelican, a tree-nester 

 which will also nest on the ground. Pelicans lay two or three eggs, 

 and their breeding biology resembles that of cormorants: they are as 

 tame, gregarious, and quarrelsome as the gannets, and just as stupid 

 in failing to recognise and rescue a nestling if it falls out of the nest or 

 is attacked ( it may even be devoured ) by a neighbouring adult. 

 Both sexes incubate the egg and brood the naked chick. They have 

 been seen to open the wings as if to shelter the growing nestling from 

 the tropical sun, but the action appears to be instinctive, and the shadow 

 may not fall on the young at all. Those young pelicans hatched in 

 tree nests remain there until they are fledged, and are fed by their 

 parents; but in ground colonies the youngsters, growing impatient 

 for food, wander over the nesting area in bands, pursuing each adult 

 arriving with fish; a melee ensues, in which they fairly attack the 



