98 



FLORIDA BIRD-LIFE 



drawing their head. Two and even three young will thus 

 actively pursue their search for food at the same time, and 

 only their extended and fluttering wings seem to keep them 

 from disappearing in the depths of the cavernous parental 

 pouch. 



Not for a moment do they stop their high-voiced squeal- 

 ing, and the rise and fall of their partly muffled screams 

 indicate the nature of their success in getting food. 



Occasionally the poor 

 judgment of the parent 

 allied to the greed of the 

 young, leads the latter to 

 attempt to swallow too 

 large a fish, when the old 

 bird saves its young 

 from choking to death by 

 forcibly pulling the fish 

 from the throat it re- 

 fuses to go down. More 

 frequently the young 

 Pelican secures a fish not 

 too large, hut too long 

 for it, when it swallows 

 it as far as it will go, 

 and, with the tail stick- 

 ing from its pouch, 

 quietly waits for the head to digest before it can en- 

 compass the whole prize. In one such instance the victim 

 chanced to he a needle fish, which, as it would not go down 

 head first was finally taken in the reverse direction. It is, 

 however, when the brown wing-feathers begin to grow and 

 the young leave the nesl that feeding occasions the greatest 

 excitement. In March, 1908, an exceptional opportunity was 

 afforded to study the young birds not only after they had 

 left the nest, hut after they had acquired the power of flight. 

 The early nesting of the fall of 1907, combined with favor- 



Young Pelican Feeding- 



