Outlines for Scout Workers, XXIV

The White Pelican

Outlines for Scout Workers

By Rubetta Moorehead and D. W . Parratt, B. S.

XXIV—The White Pelican 1. Name the two American pelicans. Distinguish them from each other. Which is ours? 2. Give a description of ours, telling of its size, color, bill, feet and pouch. 3. Where in our state is it commonly found? Where is Pelican Point? Why so called? 4. Upon what does the pelican subsist? How is it adapted to procuring its food? 5. Describe the flight. 6. Contrast the male and female birds during mating season. Why these differences? 7. Where and of what is the nest made? 8. Tell of size, color, texture, and number of eggs. 9. How are the young fed? 10. In what way does our state protect the pelican?

Handy Material "I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top."—Psalms 102:6,7.

Both brown and white pelicans live in America. The brown is found principally in Florida, along the Gulf States, and in

OUTLINES FOR SCOUT WORKERS. 615

southern California. The other ranges quite generally, but irregularly, throughout most of North America, but its favorite haunts are in western and southern United States. During the summer months he is found in great numbers on Hat Island, in Great Salt Lake. This island has long served as a breeding and nesting ground for the pelicans while the rivers emptying into the lake, together with Utah Lake, have furnished desirable feeding quarters for them. Pelican Point, on Utah Lake, gets its name from the fact that so many pelicans habitually frequent the place in quest of food. Both of the American pelicans carry names indicative of their color. Ours is white all over with the exception of a few black feathers in their wings. A tuft or crest of yellowish-white feathers adorns the pelican's small head, and a few of the same tint are found on his breast. During most of the year the male has almost no markings to distinguish him from the female. However, while the mating season is on, his bill, feet, and tail feathers assume a rosy hue, and a peculiar comb or crest appears on the upper part of his great, clumsy bill. These markings, of course, are the proud male's "beauty spots" used to win the attentions of coveted females. The pelican's bill, some three times longer than his head, is usually a deep yellow color, and is very wide and strong. On its under side is a curious, naked, yellow sac called a pouch. It is very elastic and serves well as a scoop for catching fish. His legs are, except during mating season, a striking yellow. They are heavy, short and stout, and are set rather far apart and in consequence give the bird a clumsy, awkward walk. When expanded, the wings measure ten or even twelve feet from tip to tip. With these he flies easily, firmly, and for great distances. As a rule pelicans travel in single file fashion, and at times, especially when making long journeys, fly very high. Their northward migration usually occurs in middle spring. The pelicans coming to Hat Island ordinarily reach our valley in April. Their nests are very crude, being merely sticks and stones pushed up into a mound. There are usually two dull white, rugged shelled eggs of about the size of those of a goose, but sometimes three are found in one nest. In our lake rookery, the female pelican is obliged to be exceedingly careful to never leave the nest unless her mate is in readiness to immediately take her place. This is necessary on account of the presence of so many gulls keenly watching their devour the unproopportunity to pounce upon and greedily tected eggs.

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When the baby pelicans are first hatched they are pink skinned and entirely naked. Later they become covered with a coat of down which, when dirty, looks much like short wool. During the first three weeks, they are unable to stand, and from then on for a number of weeks stumble along as if "drunken with wine," or severely afflicted with paralysis. They associate in flocks of considerable numbers and when molested crowd together much like frightened sheep. Statements made concerning the feeding of the young on Hat Island are usually erroneous. The old birds fly away to Utah Lake or to the rivers in the vicinity of Great Salt Lake for food. They leave early in the morning, sometimes while it is yet dark, for their long journeys, and as a rule return about noon or else toward evening. They feed principally upon useless fish, and the larvae of dragon flies and mosquitoes. With filled crops they fly "back home," circle about until directly above their own nest, and then alight to be met by their hungry, greedy children. The young bird puts his head down into the parent's gullet and devours the regurgitated food. Sometimes he keeps his head there almost five minutes and emerges literally blue in the face. When the parent bird thinks the young one has had a sufficient quantity of food, she struggles and shakes him off. The old bird does not eject the food upon the ground as is stated by many writers. Pelicans' bills are made for scooping and not for picking up objects, so the young would be unable to eat ejected food. While the head of the young bird is down his mother's gullet feeding, he makes a sound like a sucking pig. The old pelicans make no sounds at all. The young ones are fed bv the parent birds from seventy-five to ninety days, before thev are able to fly away to procure their own food.

Conflicting ideas regarding the usefulness of our pelicans are advanced by local bird students. Some claim he renders valuable service m keeping down the number of undesirable fish in lakes and streams, and also in carrying food to the rookeries for the gulls Others hold he is harmful because of destroying too U Z These place but little \ off\burden for gulls, and evenimport beast to the pelican as a scoff the notion as whollv a product of the imagination. If bird men thus disagree regarding the beneficial habits of the pelican, it is not at all surprising that aw makers should frame the "compromise measure" in his behalf. Such a measure is found in Section 24 of our Fish and Game Law, which reads as follows:

1 bC unlawful for a «y Person to kill, .W shoot !,* at, 11311 any swan, mourning dove npliran a»ll „ take, ensnare, net ira 1 1 i ', . tran 'P or hawk, blackbird, .brush, J^U* £££ rob ** j£ secvorcs „r „ mniv0 r olls (seell ealing) bi ; nTLebtdtrTb™'"' d d^T*