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LOUISIANA PELICANS Leather Makers Try to Have Ban Against Their Slaughter Lifted The pelicans of Louisiana have been investigated and found not guilty of damaging the fishing in ¬ dustry of the state says a writer in the Christian Science Monitor Complaints to this effect had been lodged with the state ornithologist Stanley C Arthur by a number of fisherman who further urged that the yearround protection of the great birds should be removed What Mr Arthur found in the course of his visit to every fishing settle ¬ ment of the state was that the pelican feeds prin ¬ cipally upon menhaden a small plentiful oily fish of value only for fertilizer and which swarms in the shoal waters of the bayous and inlets along the coast Huge schools of the menhaden get into the fishermens seines and t 6 clog the meshes that it often takes hours to clear them out hours wasted that might be occupied in taking food fish fishIt It is also asserted that the persons who had started the complaint against the pelican were hacked by a company which planned to make a thin highpriced leather from the beak pouches nf the birds and to use the feathers for womens hats As a result of the investigation the pro ¬ tective law will remain In force and the pelican will continue the aid which he is giving the 7000000 fishing industry in Louisiana by helping keep down the numbers of the menhaden menhadenMr Mr Arthur succeeded in getting photographs showing the pelican feeding its young the young bird having its head and beak entirely within the beak pouch of the parent bird eating the fish the older pelican had brought home from the sea seaThe The ornithologist also learned that the pelican in the Louisiana coast latitude lays eggs and hatches its young at almost all seasons of the year On the islands and mudflats along the gulf the expedition found fresh eggs as well as eggs in all stages of incubation newlyhatched birdlings birds just getting their first feathers and half crown pelicans just beginning to venture out to sea seaDuring During the tour Mr Arthur and his party found a hitherto unreported colony of 50000 on one of the many mudflats of the Mississippi delta At certain seasons of the year these mudflats are vir ¬ tually submerged and it was noted that the nests were uniltonly on the highest parts leading to the belief that the birds rear their young there all the year round Mr Arthur estimates that there arc probably 1000000 pelicans in Louisiana
