THE COCK AND THE HEN 



Pelican 



lasts. Thus stocked up, it seeks a quiet retreat on 

 some ledge of rock by the water-side and takes out, 

 one by one, the fish packed away in its pouch, to feed 

 on them at leisure." 



"The pelican seems 

 to me a wise fisher," 

 remarked Emile. 



"Without losing a 

 minute in swallowing, 

 it begins by filling the 

 bag under its beak. 

 The time will come 

 later for looking over 

 the catch and enjoy- 

 ing the fish at leisure. I should like to see it on its 

 rocks with its bag full. ' ' 



"And that other one," said Jules, "that throws 

 the fish it has caught into the air so as to catch it 

 again head first and not strangle when swallowing it 

 is not that one just as clever?" 



"Each kind has its special talent," replied Uncle 

 Paul, "which it uses with the tool peculiar to the 

 bird, the beak. If the story of the auxiliaries, re- 

 lated some time ago, is still fresh in your minds, 

 you will remember that insect-eating birds have the 

 beak slender and sometimes very long, to dig into 

 the fissures of dead wood and bark; but those that 

 catch insects on the fly, as the swallow and the fern- 

 owl, have the beak very short and exceedingly wide, 

 so that the game pursued is caught in the open gullet 

 and becomes coated with a slimy saliva which holds 



