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their dinners together. Flying, they assume their appointed positions, 
and, taking their beat from their leader, keep time with him, flapping and 
sailing together. No more beautiful sight may be seen on the prairies than 
a long line of these great white birds, black pinioned, with golden pouches 
tucked under their chins, all sparkling in the bright sunlight in brilliant 
contrast with the deep blue water or azure sky. The realization of how 
well these seemingly awkward and ponderous hulks of birds can 
fly comes with some little shock of surprise. We expect them to drag 
their great bulk about clumsily just over the water, instead of which — 
after a somewhat splashy start that can be excused in such large, heavy 
birds — once they get in the air their rise is so easy and rapid that before one 
is aware they are away up and up until, at times, they vanish in the blue 
sky above. 
In feeding, Pelicans paddle about the shallow water, head high, bill 
turned down against the breast, intently regarding the water below. When 
food is sighted, the bill is opened and plunged down and forward, the long 
slender sides of the lower mandible bow out, and the luckless victim is 
fairly scooped up. At the end of the scoop when the pressure of water in 
the pouch is relieved the sides spring together, the upper mandible closes 
down on the narrow opening, and, as the water is strained out, the contents 
are retained either to be swallowed immediately or to be carried safely in 
the capacious pouch to the gangling fledglings at home. Pelicans often 
fish far from their nests and they may be seen, for many miles about a 
colony, passing back and forth engaged in the toil of keeping themselves 
and their families supplied with food. 
Pelicans are one of the spectacular features of prairie wild life and are 
a great aesthetic asset where objects of striking interest are particularly 
desirable. They are well worth the small price of such coarse fish as they 
feed upon. All large birds suffer from thoughtless persecution by careless 
men. It would seem as though size alone were regarded as sufficient 
crime to turn every gun against its unhappy possessor. This has been 
true of the Pelican, as it has been of other large birds of greater sporting or 
food value. Pelicans are never eaten and their carcasses serve no other 
purpose than to befoul the air, yet gunners are all too few who can 
withold their shot when such striking targets come close. The fact 
that they eat a few fish is the expressed excuse, but if this class of fish 
protectionists were as concerned about the acts of poaching humans as they 
are about those of birds there would probably be more fish, and those taken 
by the Pelicans would not be missed. 
Pelicans generally nest in large communities on islands or other 
isolated spots in the larger lakes, where they are fairly secure from their 
natural enemies. They are in many cases associated with Cormorants, 
Herons, and Gulls. Although such a community is by its insularity 
normally secure from foxes, coyotes, and other vermin, it is not safe 
from man. Cases have been known where adjoining residents have 
placed pigs on such islands to fatten on the eggs and young. It is to be 
hoped that such things are of the past. With the settling of the country, 
the draining of the lakes, reclamation and other improvement schemes, 
inaccessible and retired spots where these and similar birds can nest undis- 
turbed are constantly growing scarcer. These almost unavoidable changes, 
added to promiscuous shooting, are constantly reducing the numbers of 
these birds, and if nothing were done to check the destruction, they, 
