90 AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN.
the south-west entrance or mouth of the Mississippi, and afterwards-saw
them in the course of the same season, in almost every inlet,.-.b;iy, or
river, as S "advanced toward Texas, where I found some sit them in
the Hay of Galveston, on the 1st of May. Nay, while on the Island
of Grande Terre, I was assured by Mr Akdry, a sugar-planter, who has
resided there for Home years, that lie had observed White Pelicans
along the shores - every month of the year. Can it lie, that in this
species of bird, as in many others, barren individuals should remain in
sections- of countries altogether forsaken by those which are reproductive
? The lattèr, wë linow, travel to the Rocky Mountains and the
T'ur Countries of the north, and there breed. Or do smite of these
birds, as well as of certain species of our HiiidkHi -remain aiid reproduce
in those-southern localities, -induced to do so by some- organic
or instinctive peculiarity ? Ah, Reader, how little do we yet know-of
the wonderful combinations of Nature's arrangements, to remâfii every
individual of her -creation comfortable- and happy under all the circumstances
in-which -they may be placed !
My friend J o h n Bachman, in a note to me, says that •" this bird
is now more rare on our coast than it, was thirty years ago ; for I
have heard it stated that it formerly b r e t on the-sand banks of our
Bird Islands. I saw a flobk on the Bird Banks off Bull's .Island, on
the 1st day Of July 181.4, when I proeuiedtwoifull-plumaged old birds,
and was 'under the ¡impression that they had laid .eggs on one of those
banks, but the" l a t t e r had the day previous to mjs visit been overflowed
by a spring tide, accompanied with heavy wind."
A single pair of our White Pelicans wei® procured not far from
Philadelphia, on the Delaware or-Schuylkill, ten or twelve years ago.
These wore the only birds of this kind that, I believe, were ever observed
in our Middle Districts,«'here evoil-the Brown Pelican,¡Peleeimm
fusous, is never seen. Nor have'I heard that an -individual of cither
species 'has ever been met with ou any part of -til« shores of our
Eastern States. From these facts, it may he »-onclndcil that the
White Pélicans reach the Fur Countries of Hudson's Haydn inland
journeys, ami mostly by passing- along our great western rivers in the
spring -months, as they are also wont to do, .though with less rapid
movements, in autumn.
Reader, I 'hare thought a thousand times perhaps that the present
state of migration-of many of our birds, is in a manner artificial, and
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 91
that a portion of tho myriads <,f' Ducks, Geese, and other M s , wh,oh
leffive our Southern Districts every spring for higher latitudes, were
formerly in the* habit of remaining and breeding in every sectmnof
the Gönnte? tha t was found to.be favourable for tha t purpose. It seems
to nie that it-is now ori account of the difficulties they meet with, from
the'constantly,increasing- numbers of our hostile species, that these
creatures are urged to proceed towards wild and uninhabited parts of
the world, where they lind that security from-,molestation necessary
to enable -them to rear their innocent progeny, but, which now,denied
them in countries once their own.
The White American, Pelican never descends frmu on wing upon
its prey, ;as is the habit of the Brow® Pelican ; and, although on many
occasions it fishes' in the .manner above described, it varies i t s mode.
a c c o r d i n g to OT«umsta^ees, such as a,Aeliagvof security, or the, accidental
meeting with -shoals of fishes in such shallows as the birds,can
we l l eoapass. They never dive for their food, but only thrust their
i f i e a d ¿ ¿ « t h e waters as far as -their meek can reach, and withdraw it
a s s d o n a s j i e y h a v e caught something, or have missed it, for their,
head is seid.,m out of sight more than half a,minute at a time. When
thov are upon rivers,-they usually feed along the margin of the water,
though, 1 believe, mostly in swimming depth, when they proceed with
g l .l ! ater, celerity than when on the sand. While thus swimming, >'»»
S#e their necks extended, with their upper mandible only above the
water, -the lon er being laterally extended, and ready to -receive whatever
fish or-other food may chance to come into the net-like apparatus
attached to it.
As 1liis species is often seen along the seashores searching for
food, as well as on fresh water, I will give- ,you a description of its
manners there. While-oh the Island of Barataria in April 1837, I
one afternoOij observed a number of White Pelicans in company with
a Hock of the Brown species, all at work, searching for food, the Brown
in the manner already described, the White i n the following. They
all swam against the wind and current, with their wings; partially extended,
and the peck stretched out, the upper mandible alone appearing
above the surface, while the lower must have been used as a scoopnet,
as I saw it raised from time t o time, and brought to meet the upper,
when the whole bill immediately fell to a perpendicular position,
the water was allowed to run out, and thé bill being again raised up