AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 89 
deed, Reader, those days have returned to me, as if to enable me the 
better once more to read the scattered notes contained in my often- 
searched journals. 
Ranged along the margins of the sand-bar, in broken array, stand 
a hundred heavy-bodied Pelicans. Gorgeous tints, all autumnal, en- 
rich the foliage of every tree around, the reflection of which, like 
fragments of the rainbow, seems to fill the very depths of the placid 
and almost sleeping waters of the Ohio. The subdued and ruddy 
beams of the orb of day assure me that the Indian summer has com- 
menced, that happy season of unrivalled loveliness and serenity, sym- 
bolic of autumnal life, which to every enthusiastic lover of nature 
must be the purest and calmest period of his career. Pluming them- 
selves, the gorged Pelicans patiently wait the return of hunger. 
Should one chance to gape, all, as if by sympathy, in succession open 
their long and broad mandibles, yawning lazily and Iudicrously. 
Now, the whole length of their largest quills is passed through the 
bill, until at length their apparel is as beautifully trimmed as if the 
party were to figure at aroute. But mark, the red beams of the set- 
ting sun tinge the tall tops of the forest trees ; the birds experience 
the cravings of hunger, and to satisfy them they must now labour. 
Clumsily do they rise on their columnar legs, and heavily waddle to 
the water. But now, how changed do they seem! Lightly do they 
float, as they marshal themselves, and extend their line, and now 
their broad paddle-like feet propel them onwards. In yonder nook, 
the small fry are dancing in the quiet water, perhaps in their own 
manner bidding farewell to the orb of day, perhaps seeking something 
for their supper. Thousands there are, all gay, and the very manner 
of their mirth, causing the waters to sparkle, invites their foes to ad- 
vance toward the shoal. And now the Pelicans, aware of the facul- 
ties of their scaly prey, at once spread out their broad wings, press 
closely forward with powerful strokes of their feet, drive the little fishes 
toward the shallow shore, and then, with their enormous pouches 
spread like so many bag-nets, scoop them out and devour them in 
thousands. 
How strange it is, Reader, that birds of this species should be 
found breeding in the Fur Countries, at about the same period when 
they are to be found on the waters of the inland bays of the Mexican 
Gulf! On the 2d of April 1837, I met with these birds in abundance at 
