. Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds . group is the white pelican, a large, finelyformed bird, pure white except the primary do not dive for their prey, but swim along the sur-face, striking at it with their powerful bills. The whitepelican is an inland species as a rule, found in Nevada,Utah, and many inland States. During the breeding seasonboth sexes develop a peculiar, horny crest upon the beak,which is afterward cast off. A naturalist visited a nest-ing place of these birds in Nevada, and in the nestingmonth found the ground strewn with the rejected Santa
. Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds . group is the white pelican, a large, finelyformed bird, pure white except the primary do not dive for their prey, but swim along the sur-face, striking at it with their powerful bills. The whitepelican is an inland species as a rule, found in Nevada,Utah, and many inland States. During the breeding seasonboth sexes develop a peculiar, horny crest upon the beak,which is afterward cast off. A naturalist visited a nest-ing place of these birds in Nevada, and in the nestingmonth found the ground strewn with the rejected Santa Barbara a fisherman has a pet white pelicanwhich he caught several years ago. At the breeding sea-son this fine bird disappears, going perhaps hundreds ofmiles to join its mate and then returning to the back yardof Larco. Year after year the bird has returned, beingperfectly tame, playing with boys, dogs, and cats. Thepelicans have no enemies except the laughing gulls, which,as we have seen, systematically rob them. 170 THE PELICANS AND DUCKS. Fig. 134. — Man-of-war Hawk. Closely related to the pelicans is the man-of-war hawk(Fig. 134), which in my estimation is one of the most grace-ful of all flyers. Thereare but two species,found mainly in semi-tropic waters. They arelithe and powerful, withan enormous spread ofwings. The tail is forkedand black in color. Thelegs are weak and small;the beak strong andpointed. The bird, being virtually a hawk in appearanceand a thief by habit, robs the gulls and other birds. Few if any birds have a greater power of flight. Ihave seen them lying almost motionless in the air sixhundred feet above Garden Key, Florida, during theheaviest gales. The birds faced the wind, their broadwings extended and immovable even when examinedthrough a glass. They were seemingly tilting on thewind, retaining their position for hours, or as long asthe gale lasted, enjoying the commotion of the elementsthat had driven every other bird to cover. I have watchedth
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1906
