PELICAN PEOPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 18 June 1927, Page 14

PELICAN PEOPLE

Someone has drawn a pelican for us, .iw I'll just have to tell you all I .incur«bout him. More funny storiea have been written About Mr. and Mrs. Pelican and their big bills than I could ever tell you. Once upon a time when the world was young, the birds' all laughed whenever they saw the Pelican P«ople coming..Everyone; laughed,, and they Laughed so hard that the^r sides ached till they had to hold 'them. Old Jack, the Kookaburra, laughed-loudest of all, but he never did have' any manners. Everyone laughed : except the fob. and the frogs. It was a bad day for them when Mrs. Pelican set.;put'to look for some tea. Now -Mrs. Pelican used her pouch as a shopping basket, and when she set out in , the morning she could bring home enough in her tag for tea for the whole family. And, besides, it served as a pantry too. .. Of course everybody stopped laughing "when-they saw what a fine fishing basket.; Mrs. Pelican had, and they all felt Very small indeed. It 'a' the funniest thing in the world to watch the Pelican People at tea time, for each of the babies in turn just pops ,his .head into the pantry, and chooses a dainty morsel for himself. /When the Pelican People go fishing itig a serious business. Sometimes they all line ;upnear the edge of the Hake, then they start to swim across in along line, fishing as they go. If the fishing is good, -when they reach the other bank they all squat in the sun drying their "draggledly" -wet feathers. .They have ever such a long, start on the other fisherman birds. I expect you've heard of the oldest fisherman of aU, the Blue.Crane. He has to spend long hours at his angling to get enough for his family'to eat for tea, and then he has to make a separate trip home to his-nest every time he makes a catch, for he, has no market bag like the Peli- ; can People. ■ .Thereare quite a lot of Pelican Folk in Victoria, Australia; tEey fish in the bigger lakes and lagoons in very wet seasons, but in dry years you do not

lor us by Alan Shaw, aged 10.

■ .vs'6e>.4hcin-'at; all. Where do -you-think ■they'go to? They fly away, to distant lakes far inland or to the tiny, islands >,out in Bass Straits, where they build 'their nests. There are always plenty ' of fish, for the babies there, and a Peli- ".; can. baby needs quite a lot for his tea, ' I .can tell you. ■ Long ago there was a legend—that . looks a big word, but it just means a -fairy, story—that when' the Pelican ; People disappeared they went away into «the waterless desert to nest. So they : spoke: of ihat strange place called the "Dead •heat" of Australia as the land .'?iwhete;the:Pelican builds her nest." - fieally the Pelican People are water 10v-..-crs, and; never wander for from it, for .even. their ; great big baskets won't carry, all that much fish. : ' 'Very^long ago also people, who saw the. Pelican baby helping himself from his mother's fishbag thought that the mother was feeding him on fter own blood;" and so still another very queer fairy tale was made up about the Pelican.