BIRDS 283 



nested inland. Their nests are loosely built of coarse reeds, 

 seaweed, sticks, etc. They live largely on fish, and are of an 

 iridescent, greenish black color, with green eyes a color 

 not often seen in birds. They dive and swim with ease. 



The white pelican that occurs over much of the United 

 States is a large white bird with long wings and webbed 

 feet. It is remarkable for the large pouch beneath its bill, 

 which is used for dipping up fish. One author says that 

 "several thousand of them are permanent residents of Great 

 Salt Lake, Utah, breeding on the islands twenty miles out 

 in the lake." They make their nests on the ground and 

 lay two to four eggs in it. 



Geese, ducks, etc. — The geese, ducks, and swans belong 

 in the same group and are therefore closely related. These 

 water birds have three toes of the feet webbed and their 

 bills are rather broad and are furnished along each cutting 

 edge with a series of toothlike processes. It is a large order 

 and once each year its members come up from the tropics 

 and subtropics to nest and rear their young. Some of 

 them stop in the temperate zone, but many of them go be- 

 yond the Arctic Circle among the lands of snow and ice. 



In the autumn, after the young have waxed strong of 

 muscle and wing, they retrace their long flight over land 

 and sea to warmer regions to spend the winter. 



Of the ducks the mallard is the largest and handsomest. 

 Besides, it is the parent of nearly all of our varieties of 

 domestic ducks. It aboimds in many parts of the United 

 States, nesting in the tall grasses around the margins of 

 ponds, beside small streams, etc. 



The canvasback duck has fallen a victim to the insati- 

 able appetite of the epicure and is fast disappearing from 

 North America. The eider duck occurs along the north 



