THE PELICAN 41 



we had made to assist us in boar-hunting." Probably 

 it was by no means uncommon in Palestine, in olden 

 times. 



In Northern Africa there are some sheets of water that 

 are very popular resorts of these birds. Prince Rudolph 

 mentions having seen the Roseate Pelican " in incredible 

 numbers " on Lake Menzaleh, a little-known salt-water 

 lake, lying some two miles west of Port Said. And of 

 course the lonelier parts of the Nile, with its sandbanks 

 and shallows and rich mud, are still the haunt of this 

 bold fisherman. 



The Prince above-named tells how he captured his first 

 Pelican, beside Lake Birket-el-Ka,run, which was growing 

 dark and angry under a rising storm. " The shot rattled 

 loudly on its thick mail of feathers, and feebly flapping its 

 wings it dropped into the water. For some minutes it 

 swam about slowly, but the head with its heavy bill kept 

 sinking lower and lower, until at last the waves turned the 

 bird over and it lay on its back quite dead. 



" Neither money nor threats would induce my Arab to 

 go into the water, as the Pelican was really far out. I 

 therefore hurried back to camp to get other men. But, on 

 my return, I saw, to my great delight, that a dusky fellow 

 was already approaching it through the foaming waves. 

 ... In a few minutes the plucky Arab came swimming 

 towards us, dragging the heavy bird behind him by its 

 bill. I was delighted with my first Pelican, for it was 

 quite an enormous specimen." 



The Pelican is distinctly a bird of the warm South. 

 Occasionally a solitary specimen strays to northern Europe. 

 France, Germany, and possibly other countries are occasion- 

 ally visited. Indeed, so far as climate is concerned, an 

 English summer is " quite good enough " for this migrant, 



