CITIES OF THE BROWN PELICANS 17 



been repeated upon the South Carolina coast. One bright 

 afternoon we anchored our yawl off a veritable " sea island," 

 a little sand-flat out in the open ocean. This was another 

 reputed city of the pelicans, and here before us was quite an 

 army of the great birds drawn up along the sand in pompous 

 array. Now the pelican, ordinarily a most wary bird, as soon 

 as it has a nest to guard, becomes one of the tamest and 



A TYPICAL PELICAN'S NEST 



most stolid members of its race, parental tenderness over- 

 coming the wildness of its natural instinct. So, when I saw 

 the pelicans, even before we had anchored, leave the 

 island and alight out upon the sea, I was overwhelmed with 

 well-grounded misgivings. The cause was soon made plain. 

 Great white eggs were lying, scattered or in windrows, all 

 over the sand, some of them buried beneath it. A recent gale 

 had flooded the island and " broken them up," as the saying is. 

 The eggs were fresh, and some were still in the nests with 

 only a little sand washed in. Yet the birds had deserted and 

 resumed their natural wildness. 



