PELICANS: Family Pelecanidae [ 91 ] 



to few. No one who has read the descriptions of the great nesting colonies 

 of lower Klamath and Malheur Lakes by Bendire (1877), Finley (1907^, 

 and others can view the present plight of the species with anything but a 

 feeling of sadness, and it is to be hoped that when the drought is finally 

 broken and the lakes reflooded this magnificent bird will return in num- 

 bers to its old nesting grounds. 



Clear Lake, California, just across the Oregon line, still supports a 

 colony. It furnishes the pelicans that attract so much attention at 

 Klamath Falls, where naturalists and other out-of-door visitors are 

 greatly interested in the pelicans that inhabit Link River and gratefully 

 catch the fish that spectators throw to them from the bridge. One thrifty 

 citizen has made quite an income by keeping on hand quantities of 

 minnows that he sells to those who wish to feed the white giants. 



Pelicans, like cormorants, are born naked and ugly (Plate n, B), but 

 the young soon acquire a coating of pure white down that remains with 

 them until fully grown. The flight feathers of the wings appear first, and 

 the body feathers come only after the entire development of the wing 

 quills. The feeding of the young by the parents is a unique performance, 

 matched only by that of the cormorants. The parent, carrying food in 

 its throat, returns to the nest and opens its big bill. The young bird 

 thrusts its head far down the parent's throat and feeds greedily on the 

 mass of material carried therein. 



After the young can fly, the birds gather in huge flocks on the marshes 

 and lakes until they resemble great snow banks in the rays of the sun 

 (Plate 12., A). One of the most unique spectacles in the bird world is to 

 see a group of these pelicans standing on a bank sunning themselves, with 

 their necks extended to the limit and their enormous bills pointing 

 straight to the zenith. If the observer happens to be on the water and 

 the birds upon even a slight elevation, they seem gigantic as viewed 

 through the openings in the tules. On shore, they are rather clumsy and 

 awkward-looking; but once launched in the air, there are few more 

 magnificent spectacles than these great birds in flight, circling about on 

 widespread pinions (Plate n, 5). The ease with which they soar upward 

 is something never to be forgotten, and the contrast furnished by their 

 white plumage, black wing tips, and yellow bills and feet is most striking. 

 On the water, they are equally graceful and loom up among the hordes 

 of other waterfowl like great white battleships amid a fleet of motorboats. 



Pelicans feed almost entirely from the water, scooping up fish and other 

 food in their capacious beaks and allowing the water to drain out. When 

 a school of small fish appears, the excitement is intense as dozens of these 

 feathered fishermen engage busily in operating their dredging equipment. 

 Because of their fishing habits they have been subjected to a great deal of 

 senseless persecution. It is possible that they catch some trout, but 

 stomach examinations indicate that they like all other fish-eating birds 



