92 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



the wave of air set in motion by the left wing 

 of one goose be of some help to the right wing 

 of the bird behind him? No doubt the subject 

 has been dealt with in works on birds' flight, but 

 I have not seen it. 



In Seistan we had often the opportunity of 

 watching big flights of pelicans one of the most 

 beautiful things in the world, but in a way the 

 antithesis of the flight of geese. Instead of the 

 latter's strong, regular wing-beats, the pelican 

 gives a half-dozen or so of laboured flaps to 

 raise himself and then "vol- planes" downwards. 

 I know no more remarkable sight than a great 

 flock of these birds, with their heads thrown back 

 on their shoulders, uttering hollow and sonorous 

 croaks, and rhythmically rising and falling switch- 

 back fashion, or shall I say more picturesquely, 

 like a line of foam on waves. 1 



In the second drive the geese come rising and 

 falling in the teeth of the wind both slower and 



1 It is not surprising that, often seen far from water, " pelicans 

 of the wilderness " should have attracted to themselves a glamour 

 of romance. There is the Persian story that makes them construct 

 a tank of mud in the desert which they fill with water and live 

 fish, transported thither in their skin pouches, a myth that has 

 earned for them the name of saka, the water-carrier. Another 

 legend, derived from their vivid scarlet bills and the beautiful 

 pink flush on their feathers (quickly fading after death to snowy 

 white), makes them nourish their young with blood extracted 

 from their own breasts. 



