CITIES OF THE BROWN PELICANS 
7 
THE YOUNG PELICANS IMPROVE WITH AGE 
occasionally into some little dispute. Then the gang would 
scamper away, no doubt bent upon some gay prank, if, 
indeed, that were conceivable of such dignihed creatures as 
pelicans, however young. On the whole, though, they seemed 
sedate enough to satisfy their industrious parents, who had 
gone off across the strij) of “ hammock,” or trojoical jungle, 
to the ocean shore, there to plunge headlong into the sea 
and catch fish, which they would carry home in the net-like 
pouches to fill young maws, doubtless, like those of other 
children, in a chronic state of emptiness. 
We learned from the guide and others that it was the 
pelicans’ custom to feed their young in the morning and late 
in the afternoon. Strangely enough, the pelicans do not fish 
near the island in the river, but, in flocks of about a dozen, 
