Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-02-01
PELICAN SHOOTING.
A Rig Bag of Those Birds-Killing Q
 Quarter of a Ton at Five Shots.

A Hig Bag of Those Birds-Killing a Quarter of a Ton at Five Shots. Probably the biggest bag. of feathered game, CT rather birds, ever made in this country was made at 6 lake in Dakota two
 years ago by two sportamen, who killed over quarter of a ton of pelicans at five shots
 The shooters were Frank R. Eshelman, of
 Wooster, O., and Elam Wagner, son of a Dakota settler, with whom MT. Eshelman
 was stopping while on hunting trip to the
 northwest. Early one September afternoon
 Mr. Eshelman and young Wagner were crossing the prairie irony a mornings sport
 with prairie chickens, and when about four
 miles from Lake Alice, southeast of the Sisseton Indian reservation, where the Wagner homestead was located, their attention was attracted by white objects apparently dropping from the sky over Lake Alice. The sun was shining
 brightly and its rays partially reflected by l the moving objects in mid air, and they looked from that distance like large flakes of
 snow dropping earthward. Young Wagner
 understood the situation at a glance, know
 ing that the objects were animate ones, and
 that the circling. settling flight downward,
 unlike the sweeping flight of geese or swan, l showed them to be pelicans, and the season for the southern flight of geese and swan was little early. Pelicans breed somewhere up in Manitoba, and their fall flight to the south occasionally takes in eastern Dakota, where they generally drop off for day or so on the lakes in the territory.
 It appeared to Eshelman and his companion as though the blue sky over the lake was alive with the white objects. and from rise of ground they watched the down pour of pelicans, and gradually saw long line of Sfrpfnhinp "a If ba
 lake. While feeding pelicans swim single file,
 the rear ones continually flying over the ones ahead, leap frog fashion, as the head ones gobble up nearly all the food obtainable, so
 that the rear ones would find poor picking Young Wagner had had some experience with pelicans on Lake Alice, and knew that when through feeding they would congre- gate on sand bar known as ''The Point on
 tho south side of the lake. Such was the case, and an hour or so later the bar, from shore to terminus, about 100 feet out of the
 water, was covered with the big birds.
 Then the two hunters, having reached home and having anxiously waited for the pehcans to gather on the sand bar, started for them
 The bar was difficult of access, the country around being bare, and for several hundred yards Eshelnan and Wagner crawled snake fashion through the grass. Wagner had an old double barreled muzzle loader, and Eshel- man had q twelve gauge breech loader. Hav
 ing discarded their hunting coats and vests to make crawling easier. Wagner had only two loads in his gun and Eshelman had two shots in his, besides two shells in the pocket of his flannel shirt, all loads being BIB shot, When
 within about sixty yards of the point they rose up. The pelicans were sitting motion less and ill mopish attitudes. Fully 800 were together on the bar, and four loads of BB's were emptied into them. Eshelman fired the fifth shot as the pelicans attempted to raise and turned over five having lost one of the shells from his shirt pocket while 'worming" it through the grass. Pelicans set so close to- gether that it is with difficulty that they eau raiso when suddenly surprised, and they were slow in getting away, their long wings, with spread of eight feet or more, striking each other
 Just twentyone of the flock stayed in the bar, two cripples attempting to swim off, one succeeding. The other was caught by the wing and pulled back by young Wagner, who rushed into the water waist deep to haul him back, making twenty-two pelicans brought to bag by five shots. The birds weighed from fifteen to thirty pounds, their combined weight being about quarter of a ton. It required wagon to haul them to the house. Among the lot were several old males, with 'horns' on their bills. The old ones are easily distinguished from young ones The latter have pale greenish feet, and the skin around the eyes bears similar color. Legs of old ones are more of an orange or pinkish hue; also the skin about the eyes. The large skin sacks on the lower mandible were empty, except marked here and there with live leeches
 As pelican meat Is not considered palatable, the feathers were taken for bedding, and several of the finest birds were preserved for mounting.-Co Cincinnati Enquirer