THE PELICAN 39 



Pelican in using its great pouch in a playful way. "At 

 the New York Zoo," he says, "it was noticed that, in a 

 large indoor pool used for the wild fowl in Bronx Park in 

 winter time, the Pelicans would amuse themselves by 

 scooping up some little Javanese pigmy ducks in their 

 pouches, and holding them there for amusement. They 

 would sometimes add the further entertainment of tossing 

 these ducks up in the air and catching them." 



And lest this be thought to be a new use of the pouch 

 only learned in captivity, the same writer mentions how a 

 recent African traveller, coming quietly round a corner of 

 reeds in a canoe, on one of the African lakes, nearly ran 

 upon an old Pelican with one or two young ones. " The 

 bird instantly scooped them up into her pouch, and swam 

 off with them into the reeds." 



Man is not the only enemy the Pelican has to fear. 

 Mr. Lodge was told by the Albanian fishermen that the 

 nurseries were constantly raided by eagles which made 

 many a meal off the more unwary of the Pelican children. 



In Africa the fishing eagle treats the Pelican very 

 much as Drake used to treat the richly laden Spanish 

 galleons which he lay in wait for, on the high seas. For 

 the fishing eagle delays till the white- winged fisherman 

 has filled his pouch with fish, and then swoops down upon 

 him. The poor fellow opens his beak with a loud cry 

 of protest, and the pirate at once deftly snatches from it 

 a good-sized fish, and the next moment is bearing it away 

 exultantly. 



The same trick is played on the American Pelicans by 

 sea-gulls, the bold black-headed gull being the worst 

 offender. He and his robber comrades watch the in- 

 offensive white bird fly off to his fishing, and then go after 

 him. As soon as he lifts his great pouched beak from the 



