OOLOGIST'S EXCHANGE, 



Florida Birds No. 1,— Notes on The 



Pelicans. 



BY F. C. Bakek. 



One morning in April, I ' turned out ' 

 at five o'clock, and prepared for a day's 

 hunt on the beach. After taking some- 

 thing to eat and filling my pockets with 

 ammunition, cotton and other necessary 

 paraphernalia, started out andafter a walk 

 of twenty minutes ' ' arrove " at the beach . 

 The first of the feathered tribe which 

 greeted my eye was a Willet (Symphe- 

 mia semipahnata) calmly stalking along 

 the shore. I hastily pulled up and fired 

 at him, but to my disgust and dis- 

 appointment he flew quite a distance up 

 the beach, and I lost sight of him. 



I had gone a quarter of a mile when 

 I saw about three miles north of me 

 a large flock of pelicans swiftlj com- 

 ing down the coast. Hastily concealing 

 myself in some saw palmetto I waited 

 for them to fly over. In a short time 

 the leader was in sight over the tops of 

 the scrub palmetto and very soon the 

 whole flock was directly over me ; hastily 

 bringing my gun to bear I let them have 

 both barrels and to my surprise and de- 

 light two splendid specimens of the 

 Brown Pelican [Pelecanus fuscu$) were 

 lying at my feet. I was not a little sur- 

 prised to see upon picking up one of 

 them that his pouch was full of fish and 

 I found by counting them that he had 

 41 fish (1 fish 10 in. long and 40 fish 3 in. 

 long) the other pelican's pouch was 

 empty. This bird must have carried 

 those fish in his pouch at least four 

 miles. About noon I returned home 

 having secured in addition to the 

 Pelicans, six Sanderlings (Calidris are- 

 naria) and two Boyal Terns {Sterna 

 maxima). 



During the afternoon I skinned the 

 pelicans and was again surprised to find 

 such large sized fish in their crops. 



Out of one crop I took 2 mullet 10 

 inches in length and from the other one 

 1 fish 14 in. long. 



Providence, R. I., 14 May, 1889. 



We have before us the June number of 

 the degenerate Sloobologist of Albion and 

 as the Editor makes no reply to our article 

 we presume that this is an admission that 

 the assertion in our May number was 

 correct. 



How to make a Blow Pipe. 



Some of our friends have, after coming 

 home from a collecting trip, and blowing 

 a large number of eggs, been troubled with 

 quite a severe stomach ache about two 

 hours after reaching home. This is due in 

 nearly all cases to hunger but a few are du© 

 to the following. The blow pipe most 

 commonly used is the ordinary brass one, 

 because it is the cheapest ; and after it has 

 been used a couple of times, the moisture, 

 which will remain in in spite of all you can 

 do will collect a small quantity of verdigris 

 and when the water is sucked up into the 

 mouth, for the purpose of rinsing the Eggs 

 a small particle of this verdigris may be 

 carried into the stomach and cause the 

 effects described. We have yet to hear 

 of any serious results arising from a case 

 of this kind, but it is better to avoid the 

 common brass blow pipe and at th e same tim e 

 the stomach aches and as the nickel blow 

 pipes come pretty high we would recom- 

 mend our readers to the following method. 

 First of all secure ten cents, then walk up 

 to the druggist's store with an air of nickel 

 plated hauteur and ask for a glass tube for 

 an ordinary nursing bottle ; the man of 

 drugs will probably hand it over to you and 

 in a sweetly modulated voice pronounce 

 the words "ten cents." You must scowl 

 at him with all the vigor at your command 

 and say that the opposition drug store will 

 give it to you for three cents and he will 

 then come down to five cents at which 

 price you had better take it u»less you 

 know you can get it cheaper elsewhere. 

 Having secured the tube, trot home and 

 get a little alcohol or spirits whichever is 

 the handiest and pouring it into a small 

 narrow mouthed bottle, insert a piece of 

 cord to act as a wick and then set fire to 

 the wick. This will answer as well as a 

 thirty-five cent alcohol lamp, is cheaper 

 and will not burn near so much alcohol 

 and if ordinary care is used, will not ex- 

 plode. Hold the tube so that the middle 

 of it is directly in the flame, turning it all 

 the time so aS to get every side evenly 

 heated and in about five minutes you will 

 feel that the glass is getting soft ; keeping 

 it still in the flame, draw it out with a 

 steady motion until at the narrowest part 

 it is about the thickness of a pin head and 

 then removing it from the flame, touch it 

 in the middle with a needle or pin pre- 

 viously dipped in cold water and it will 

 snap apart in a straight and clear line, 

 leaving you two very good blow pipes 

 which can be used without fear of evil 

 effects and which, if properly taken care of 

 will last as long and probably longer than 

 one of the ordinary ones. 



