. Guide leaflet. igin of the myth in which the parentPelican opens her breast to supply nourishment for her offspring. Whenthe young Pelican secures fish longer than it can swallow, it sits with thetail projecting from its mouth, patiently waiting for the head to digest(ground nest, center, front). The inhabitants of Pelican Island have often been wantonlymolested by man, and at times the vandalism of tourists, who killed thebirds and robbed them of their eggs, has threatened the existence ol thisremarkable colony. To prevent so unfortunate a catastrophe, PresidentRoosevelt set aside Pelican I
. Guide leaflet. igin of the myth in which the parentPelican opens her breast to supply nourishment for her offspring. Whenthe young Pelican secures fish longer than it can swallow, it sits with thetail projecting from its mouth, patiently waiting for the head to digest(ground nest, center, front). The inhabitants of Pelican Island have often been wantonlymolested by man, and at times the vandalism of tourists, who killed thebirds and robbed them of their eggs, has threatened the existence ol thisremarkable colony. To prevent so unfortunate a catastrophe, PresidentRoosevelt set aside Pelican Island as a government reservation, and awrarden was employed to guard it during the nesting season. But eventhese precautions proved insufficient. The building of houses on tin-nearby mainland evidently disturbed the Pelicans, and they abandonedthe island to nest upon others farther north. Fortunately this group isan adequate representation of the bird-life of this famous but nowdeserted home of the Brown Pelican. CO E ffl 10. THE AMERICAN EGRET IN A SOUTH CAROLINACYPRESS FOREST ANYONE who knows how abundant the Snowy Herons orZ_\ Egrets once were in our Southern States may be surprised tolearn that no little difficulty was experienced in finding a Localitywhere the necessary studies could be made for an Egret group. Soeffectively, indeed, have the plume-hunters done their work, that itwas feared that this beautiful and fast-vanishing species could notbe included among the Habitat Groups, when, quite by chance, a colonyof Egrets was heard of on a shooting preserve in South Carolina. Itappears that when the land was acquired it contained a few Egrets,survivors of a once flourishing colony. The new owners rigidly pro-tected them, and they soon began to increase, forming at the end ofseven years a rookery which would have done credit to the days ofAudubon. The nests were in cypresses at an average height of forty feet, andthe birds were studied and photographed from a moss-draped
Size: 1353px × 1846px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectnatural, bookyear1901
