43 6 



The National Geographic Magazine 



these waters, remarked 

 as he tossed a flapping 

 bird overboard, "Darn 

 these pell-mellicans." 

 Through fear of dis- 

 turbing the birds fur- 

 ther in the midst of the 

 nesting season, we 

 quietly withdrew with a 

 single much-prized pic- 

 ture to our credit. 



This spring, in com- 

 pany with my former 

 shipmate, Mr Chap- 

 man, we revisited the 

 island, he to take cine- 

 matograph pictures of 

 this wonderful colony 

 and some upon the new 

 colored plates, and- 1 to 

 get pictures of these 

 birds in flight or with 

 the stereoscopic camera. 



We found on March 

 10 most of the young 

 birds ready for flight, 

 numbering some 1,500, 

 while scattered about 

 were the remains of 

 fully 800 more of a later 

 hatching, killed either 

 by the heavy freeze of 

 the week before or by 

 reason of a midnight 

 raid made by local fish- 

 ermen, who, disregard- 

 ing the fact that the 

 pelicans live almost 

 wholly upon the worth- 

 less menhaden taken in 

 the open sea, have 

 shown in recent years a 

 great enmity toward 

 these birds because the 

 young occasionally, in 

 their early efforts, catch 

 a few mullet in the In- 

 dian River. 



The brown pelicans- 

 are abundant on the 

 Florida and Gulf coasts. 

 When going or return- 



