Bird lore - Project Puffin

California Brown Pelicans II
After treating each individual wing- and tail-feather to this 'dry cleaning'
process, it shoved its head back and down between its wings, moved it around
several times, then with its long bill proceeded to remove from the wing coverts
the moisture that had come from its head.
It was then ready for another aerial flight and fishing trip. At the tip of
the bill of the California brown Pelican is a round knob from which depends
a hook-like prong, which is of vital importance in retaining the squirming fish.
The fish-net pouch of bare skin, which hangs from the flexible sides of the lower
mandible, is often punctured or torn when swallowing the head of the fish.
Among the group of Pelicans on the wharf at Redondo Beach, we observed
one with a rent three inches in length. This large aquatic bird is a monoplane
and hydroplane combined, and more perfect in its power of aerial locomotion
than the finest aeroplane ever conceived of by man.
It is a familiar object along the beaches of southern California, and becomes
quite tame upon the fishing wharfs, where, with the greedy Gulls, it is considered
a good scavenger, both as to capacity and rapacity, for the fresh fish oftal
thrown by the fishermen into the ocean.
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HOMEWARD BOUND
Photographed by Niebergall, Sandusky, Ohio
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