CITIES OF THE BROWN PELICANS 



THE YOUNG PELICANS IMPROVE WITH AGE 



occasionally into some little dispute. Then the gang would 

 scamper away, no doubt bent upon some gay prank, if, 

 indeed, that were conceivable of such dignified creatures as 

 pelicans, however young. On the whole, though, they seemed 

 sedate enough to satisfy their industrious parents, who had 

 gone off across the strip of " hammock," or tropical jungle, 

 to the ocean shore, there to plunge headlong into the sea 

 and catch fish, which they would carry home in the net-like 

 pouches to fill young maws, doubtless, like those of other 

 children, in a chronic state of emptiness. 



We learned from the guide and others that it was the 

 pelicans' custom to feed their young in the morning and late 

 in the afternoon. Strangely enough, the pelicans do not fish 

 near the island in the river, but, in flocks of about a dozen, 



