THE WHITE FISHER 43 



so that he might easily observe any fish in the water below. 

 At the upper end there were a number of small streams 

 that flowed into the lake close to each other. At the point 

 where these streams entered, the water was shallow for a 

 considerable distance, and was grown up with rushes and 

 cat-tails. No one could wade here and it was too shallow 

 to go with a boat. Among these reeds thousands of small 

 fish played during the hot summer days, for not only was 

 there food abundant but they were safe from larger fish. 

 The pelicans always headed for this part of the lake. Here 

 a single bird could drive the minnows into a nook and 

 quickly catch them. When the old bird had eaten all he 

 wished, he would fill his pouch to the brim and lazily fly 

 over to the island to feed his young. 



I have never had the opportunity of seeing one of these 

 birds feed its young, so I do not know how it is done ; but 

 I do know that one day a pelican flew reasonably near and 

 a friend of mine who was with me in a boat shot at him. 

 Of course he did not hurt the pelican, but it was fright- 

 ened so badly that it dropped two or three fish out of its 

 pouch. We rowed quickly to where those fish fell to see 

 if they were dead or alive. We knew that if they were 

 injured they would be found floating on the surface of 

 the water, but as we could find nothing of them we were 

 convinced that they were uninjured. 



The white pelican is no longer found over the greater 

 part of the United States, except during migration, 

 altho in the early history of this country it was found 

 much more extensively. It is recognized by its giant bill 

 with a large pouch beneath. Several varieties are often 

 seen in our city parks, but our American species differs 

 from all of the others in that it has a bony protuberance 



