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Volume IX

 

WO species of pelicans are found on the Pacific Coast, the white (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), and the Brown (Pelecanus californicus). The brown pelican is one of the commonest fishers on the southern California seacoast, while the white pelican is a bird of the interior. On the Coronado Islands the brown pelican nests abundantly and from this place the birds fly for miles up and down the coast to their fishing grounds.

Altho heavy and clumsy in shape, the pelican is as expert as the kingfisher at diving. From a height of thirty or forty feet, he drops like a plummet into a school of small fish and rises to the surface with pouch filled with fish and water. As the diver stretches his neck and draws his bill straight up, the water runs out and the fish are left. The head is thrown back and the whole earth is swallowed at one gulp. But the pelican does not fish for himself alone, for he is generally followed by one or more thieving gulls.

One day while standing on the wharf at Santa Monica, I saw a brown pelican flapping along with a pair of gulls a few feet behind. A moment later the big bird spied a fish, for with a back stroke of his wing, he turned to dive. He gathered speed as he went and with wings partly closed and rigid, he hit the water with a resounding splash. The lower mandible of his bill contracted and opened his pouch that held about as much water as the weight of his body. He came to the surface and was in a helpless condition till the water ran out, and at this moment he was pounced upon by the swift-moving gulls who snatched the fish and were away before the slow pelican could retaliate.

At another time I saw a band of a dozen pelicans hovering over a school of fish. The birds rose from the surface, swung around till about twenty feet above, and two or three of them dropped into the water at a time. A bevy of twenty gulls were fluttering around to pounce on every pelican that dove. The instant