36 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
performance, but an energetic and forcible bur- 
rowing; the chick sometimes loses its balance and 
for a moment literally stands upon its head inside 
the capacious maw. Ever and anon strong gulp- 
like contractions occur in the pouch, apparently to 
bring the food nearer to the chick. As the pouch 
is emptied these movements give place to a series 
of peristaltic waves, and finally, after perhaps 
fifteen minutes, the neck and head of the young- 
ster reappear, and the meal is completed. A large 
family which such feeding necessitates, would cer- 
tainly be an imposition, hence Dame Nature is 
considerate, and, as stated the pelican offsp.'ing is 
limited. 
The adult birds are expert fishermen, and 
have evolved the blockade system to a science, for 
it is no uncommon sight to see about a thousand 
of them arranged in a huge crescent, at intervals 
of some three feet apart, in the shallow water as 
it enters the lake; the in-coming shoals of fish 
certainly have but a sorry chance of running the 
pickets. There are probably 10 to 12,000 birds in 
the rookeries. The adults weigh about 181bs. 
each, and it is estimated each bird consumes a 
minimum of 21bs of fish daily. 
On the larger rock islands numerous rattle- 
snakes are to be found, which prey upon the young 
birds or possibly subsist upon the abundant dead 
fish which are scattered over the rocks apparently 
ejected from some over gorged maw. It is a curi- 
ous fact that the pelicans do not consume the 
swim or bladder of the fish, hence numbers of these 
bladders, many inflated, are lying around the 
nest sites. Just how the bird dissects out this 
organ has not yet been decided. There is a nota- 
ble absence of guano on the rookeries. 
It is not likely that the food problem on the 
Pacific coast will become so urgent as to necessi- 
tate a claim upon the fish products of Pyramid 
Lake, hence the pelicans are likely to remain un- 
disturbed by outside strife, and we certainly trust 
that this unique nature group may long remain — 
silent witnesses in the reciprocity of balanced life 
problems which man, the higher up, has as vet 
but imperfectly solved. 
AUDUBON ASSOCIATION 
OF THE PACIFIC, 
PUBLICITY DEPT. 
$ 
Dutch Aviculture at the end of the 
Eighteenth Century. 
Translated from Levaillant's " Birds of Africa" 
by F. Finn 1 . 
The Curator of the Whitechapel Museum 
(Fredk. J. Stubbs) writes as follows : — 
"While reading Mr. F. Finn's remarks on 
Levaillant's work, and on the impatient manner 
in which the late Prof. Alfred Newton chal- 
lenged the accuracy of this old-time naturalist, 
I remembered a passage in a far more modern 
scientific work that can hardly have escaped the 
eye of Newton, who had a great respect for 
German ornithology. It appears in the 'Mit- 
teilungen des Ornithol. Verein in Wien,' Vol. 7 
(1883), page 16, and a translation of this scrap 
of scientific German may provide a little amuse- 
ment for your readers. This well-known bird 
work used to carry great weight with us, but 
this is what passed for ornithology in 1883. 
"The article (for which Dr. Gustav von 
Hayek is responsible) is headed 'Jagd mit Zuhil- 
fenahme des elektrischen Lichtes' — that is, 
'Hunting by means of the Electric Light'; and it 
goes on to describe how 
'A landowner in Lancashire arranged a hunt 
'with the aid of electric light. In a field he 
'placed a traction engine with a dynamo at- 
'tached, and a tall pole bearing an electric 
'lamp. At the same time beaters were sent 
'out to arouse the sleeping game; and the 
'birds and animals, heavy with sleep, and 
'alarmed by the bright light, staggered to- 
' wards it. At the same time many sea birds 
'were attracted, and smashed their skulls 
'against the lamp. The result of the first hunt 
' — or rather massacre— <was> a bag of 464 Wild 
'Geese, 11 Snipe, 143' Partridges, and other 
'birds, together with several Roe Deer and 
'Red Deer.' 
"One likes the sorrowful little aside about 
the massacre. Apparently the writer did not 
know Lancashire, and obviously he omitted to 
look up the geographical distribution of the Roe 
or the Red Deer in Great Britain. I have heard 
appalling- yarns of Wild Geese from the gunners 
of the Fylde District, but none of them, even in 
his most capacious moments, ever bragged in 
hundreds. Whatever Levaillant wrote, he never 
came anywhere near this silly fable, and for its 
parallel we have to go to the German Wireless 
Reports of to-day. And even these are reticent 
on the subject of great bags made by gunners in 
England by the aid of searchlights !" 
-«- 
THE ELEPHANTS OF THE ADDO 
BUSH. 
The Central News correspondent at Port 
Elizabeth has forwarded the following interestin 
story : — 
"Langtoon, a rogue elephant of extraordin 
arv ferocity, which for years has been looked 
p- 
