August, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



ing the process, being thrust well into the throat of its 

 offspring. When we consider that the bill of the pelican is 

 at least equal in size to the entire newly hatched young, the 

 impracticability of this method of feeding the young in their 

 case is at once apparent. The procedure is therefore re- 

 versed; the young pelican dives head foremost into the 

 cavernous depths of its parent's pouch, and even explores 

 the recesses of the parental throat. Fish either predigested 

 or freshly caught reward this exploration, according to the 

 age of the young pelican. Submergence in these depths 

 of the oral larder is apparently a fatiguing process, and it 

 is some time after a meal before the young pelican seems to 

 feel himself again. Young pelicans, after they arrive at such 

 size as to be able to get about, do not restrict their clamor- 

 ings for food to their own parents, but even levy on any 

 pelican that happens to waddle along. The old birds, how- 

 ever, always distinguish their own offspring, and when the 

 selection is made, the other young pelicans make no attempt 

 to disturb the feed- 

 ing. 



In the white peli- 

 can, the upper man- 

 dible is adorned 

 with a thin, tri- 

 angular, bony crest, 

 composed of horny 

 fibers, and attached 

 to the cutaneous cov-- 

 ering of the bill, but 

 not to the bony 

 structure itself. 

 These appendages 

 are worn only dur- 

 i n g the breeding 



occasionally indulging in a grotesque dance. Such a habit is 

 indulged in by some such birds as the sandhill crane at the 

 breeding season. However, the great blue heron has been 

 known to indulge in family dances of this character in the 

 fall, and such dances having obviously no pairing significance, 



Pelican 

 Dancing 



season, being afterward shed. As the birds are said to be 

 somewhat quarrelsome during the breeding season, and as 

 these objects are possessed only by the males, it has been 

 thought that they are in the nature of weapons. 



Pelicans have an amusing, and rather obscure, habit of 



there seems no bet- 

 ter reason to assign 

 for their indulgence 

 than that the birds, 

 like their human 

 brethren, find this 

 diversion amusing 

 and to their liking. 



The larger crea- 

 tures of our country 

 passed before the 

 advancement of civi- 

 lization. Before 

 people realized that 

 the immense herds 

 of buffalo that 

 ranged the western 

 plains were destined 

 to extermination, 



they were gone, and there remained of them only small, 

 tame-looking groups in the zoological parks, and the tradi- 

 tions that linked them with the Indian and the cowboy. 



Our fathers tell us of the flocks of wild pigeons that dark- 

 ened the sky, and broke down large branches in the woods 

 where they roosted, yet to-day it is rarely, if ever, that one Is 

 seen. The great auks that once densely peopled a northern 

 island have been unknown, save from a few mounted speci- 

 mens in the museums, for the last fifty years. For about the 

 same period the Labrador duck has been extinct. The king 

 of the world's woodpeckers, the ivory-billed. Is following 

 fast the same road. Many of the sea-birds, and most of the 

 ducks and geese, have been greatly reduced in numbers. 



Unless the future holds some bright surprise In store for 

 us, the white pelican will soon be numbered with those crea- 

 tures whose wild life is known only as a matter of history. 



