LIFE HISTORIES OF NOETH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 289 



foam, as they move on in an almost unbroken line, filling their pouches as they 

 go. When satisfied with their catch, they wade and waddle into line again 

 upon the beach, where they remain to rest, standing or sitting, as suits them 

 best, then, if disturbed, they generally ^rise in a flock and circle for a long 

 time high in the air. 



While fishing in this way, the pelican must catch enormous num- 

 bers of small fish. 



Audubon (1840) speaks of finding "several hundred fishes, of the 

 size of what are usually called minnows in the stomach of one bird ;" 

 and he says: 



Among the many which I have at different times examined, I have never 

 found one containing fishes as large as those commonly swallowed by the brown 

 species, which, in my opinion, is more likely to secure a large fish by plunging 

 ui)on it from on wing, than a bird which must swim after its prey. 



Dr. P. L. Hatch (1892) says: 



Whether seizing a minnow, or a pickerel weighing three and a half pounds, 

 as in one instance, the fish is grasped transversely, when it is tossed into the 

 air and invariably received with its head foremost in its descent into the 

 pouch. 



The white pelican frequently feeds on large fish, such as trout, 

 bass, chub, carp, catfish, suckers, pickerel, and pike, which it must 

 catch by some other method than that described above ; probably the 

 larger fish are caught by swimming with the head partially or wholly 

 submerged. In the breeding colonies on Lake Winnipegosis the 

 ground around the nests was strewn with large numbers of the heads 

 of pike and jackfish of great size; many of these must have belonged 

 to fish weighing between twenty and thirty pounds ; these large pike 

 are very abundant in this lake, but I can not understand how the 

 pelicans could have caught such large fish or have transported them 

 to the islands, yet I can not see what else could have brought them 

 there. 



Mr. C. J. Maynard (1896) says of the food of a captive white 



pelican : 



Johnny ate not only fish but meat, and the quantity which he devoured was 

 surprising, for he often consumed six or eight pounds at a meal. Not that 

 he was a glutton, for when he was satisfied no temptation would induce him 

 to take another morsel. His favorite method of eating was to have his 

 food thrown to him, when he would catch it in his beak, slip it into his pouch, 

 then he would wait until I grasped him by the bill, when I would raise it and 

 shake his head until the food passed downward into his stomach. 



Behavior. — The white pelican is, all things considered, one of the 

 largest birds in North America, and it maintains the dignity of its 

 position in the grandeur of its flight. I know of no more magnifi- 

 cent sight, in American bird life than a large flock of white pelicans 

 in flight. Its enormous expanse of wing is sufficient to lift its great 



