PELICANS 
Bound on a fishing expedition, a flock of forty or more brown pelicans 
takes its leisurely flight in a long oblique line or else in wedge formation. 
In spite of their great size pelicans fly swiftly, necks drawn in upon the 
shoulders and feet trailing behind. Medieval mariners, seeing a line of 
pelicans far in the distance, often fancied they had sighted some enormous 
sea monster. 
Pelicans inhabit not only the tidal waters of the ocean but also swampy 
districts and inland lakes. Utilizing their ability to transport fish for con¬ 
siderable distances, they often seek their family food supply far from 
their nests. 
The pelican’s most prominent feature is its beak, frequently a foot 
long, beneath which hangs a pouch, capable when distended of holding 
more than three gallons of water. The beak does not, as the popular limerick 
would indicate, hold food for a week, but rather serves as a net for catch¬ 
ing fish. The bird will plunge straight downward from a height of fifty 
feet or more, hitting the water with an awkward splash. Sometimes when 
standing quietly in the water the pelican may spy its prey. It will then 
immerse its head, sometimes somersaulting completely to make the catch. 
On returning to the surface, it lets the water run out of its beak until the 
pouch has contracted, and then swallows the fish. Its stomach serves for 
storage, as digestion is slow. In feeding its hatchlings, the parent coughs 
up small morsels; for the larger chicks, it may disgorge whole fishes. The 
young feed by sticking their heads down the parental gullet. 
Brown pelicans breed in colonies on small islands near the mainland, 
making either a nest of gravel and vegetable rubbish on the ground or one 
of twigs in mangrove trees. They lay two or three chalky white eggs, which 
require about one month for incubation. 
So great is the pelican’s repute as a fisher that in 1918 Texan fishermen 
demanded its extermination, claiming that the voracious birds devoured 
more fish than the entire population of Texas. Investigation showed, how¬ 
ever, that these pelicans fed mostly on the Gulf menhaden, an oily fish 
unfit for human consumption. The birds should therefore be left unmolested. 
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