AMERICAN BROWN PELICAN 73 



being served!" Down comes each to join in the feast, 

 pitching from a height of thirty or more feet, headlong 

 into the water, with open beak and breast, so hard and 

 fast that it reminds one of a heavy stone tossed into the 

 water from an equal height. When the bird rights itself 

 it presents a ridiculous and comical picture as, with much 

 seeming dignity, it gradually forces the water from the 

 distended sac and tosses its head upward to swallow the 

 imprisoned prey. If the fish is five or more inches long 

 and turned tail downward the bird skilfully maneuvers 

 until the head points toward its stomach before swallow- 

 ing the victim. 



All of this time you are amused to see one or more 

 Gulls following in the wake of the feeding Pelicans and 

 picking up the crumbs from the latter 's table, or even 

 alighting on the Pelicans' backs or heads, screaming, 

 quarreling and begging for food, often actually seizing 

 the tails of protruding fish from between the lightly- 

 clasped bills of the Pelicans and holding on so per- 

 sistently that the big birds, as if in disgust, relax their 

 hold and seem to say: "Take it, you beggar. Thief I 19 



Birds that swim and dive for their food are all awk- 

 ward and ugly on land, while those that wade are the 

 emblems of poise and beauty, as personified in the Great 

 Whooping Crane, and the Great Blue Heron. 



One of the best known and most accessible large 

 breeding places of the Brown Pelican is on Pelican 

 Island, in the Indian River, on the east coast of Florida. 

 (Fig. 20.) This island of only three acres is the breeding 

 place each season for four thousand pairs of Pelicans. 

 The general surface of the island is only three feet above 

 the water line at the usual stage ; therefore, a heavy rain 

 with a strong wind from the north may flood the entire 

 surface, except a little knoll on the eastern side of the 

 island. A few years ago the island was studded with 

 stunted mangrove trees, but at the time of my visit only 

 two or three dead stumps remained. 



The river at this point is about three miles wide, the 

 island being within half a mile of the eastern shoreline. 

 A very rich deposit of guano makes up the surface of the 

 island. I was told by someone while visiting in the 

 vicinity that much of this guano had been removed and 



