THE SEA BIRDS OF THE PLAINS. 61 



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interior than on the coast, while the brown pelican is common 

 along the Gulf of Mexico and less abundant inland. All along 

 the Florida coast the brown pelicans may be seen soaring above 

 the blue water, or fishing in flocks, and sunning themselves 

 on the sand bars. 



In the West the great white pelican takes its place. Their 

 habits are rather similar, except in a single particular. The 

 brown pelican plunges from the wing after its fish, but the 

 white pelican hunts its prey by swimming. Often a flock will 

 band together and drive a school of fishes into shallows, where 

 they gather up large numbers at every scoop of their big bag. 

 The water taken in is allowed to drain out of the corners of 

 their mouths, and the fish are swallowed. 



If the bird is fishing to feed her young, she still does the 

 same, and afterward disgorges the fish ; for she could not fly 

 if her pouch were filled with fishes, as many books teach us, 

 because then her body would be out of balance. 



Though they live together in large flocks, the pelican so 

 naturally seeks dreary and lonesome places that it has been 

 taken as an emblem of desolation. " And the pelican of the 

 wilderness shall possess it," says the Scripture, frequently 

 choosing the pelican and the bittern, because they dwell in 

 remote and sedgy marsh-lands, to typify utter ruin and 

 desolation. 



For centuries the pelican has been chosen as the symbol of 

 one thing or another. An odd conceit in its natural history 

 is connected with the days of chivalry. When knights used 

 to ride out in full armor, each man carried a shield, and on it, 

 partly because few could read, and partly because it was im- 

 portant to know friend or foe while still a long way off, each 

 man painted some device which stood instead of his name. 

 Usually it was a bird or an animal in a certain attitude, a 



