News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-31
PELICAN SHOOTING.
killing Quarter of a Ton of Birds
at Five Shots.

Probably the biggest bag of feathered
game, or, rather, birds, ever made in
this country was made at a lake in Dako-
to two years ago by two sportsmen, who
killed over quarter of ton of pelioans
OF five shots. The shooters were Frank
r. Esheiman, of Wooster, Ohio, and
Elan Wagner, son of q Dakota settler,
with whom Mr.. Eshelman was stopping
while on hunting trip to the North
west. Early one September afternoon
Mr.. Eshelman and young Wagner were
crossing the prairie from mornings
sport with prairie chickens, and when
about four miles from Lake Alice, south
east of the Sisseton Indian Reservation,
where the Wagner homestead was loca-
ted, 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 the moving objects in mid
air, and they looked from that distance
like large flakes of snow dropping earth
ward. Young Wagner understood the
situation ut glance, knowing that the
objects were animate ones, and that the
circling, setting flight downward, unlike
the sweeping flight of geese or swan,
showed them to be pelicans, and the sea-
son 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 COM
panion 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 gradu-
ally saw long line of white stretching
across the surface of the 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 congregate on q
sand-bank known as "The Point" on
the south side of the lake. Such was
the case, and an hour or so later the
bar, from shore to the terminus, about
one hundred feet out in the water, was
covered with the big birds.
Then the two hunters having reached
home and having anxiously waited for
the pelicans 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 Eshelman
and Wagner crawled snake fashion
through the grass. Wagner had an old
double barre.ed, muzzle-loader and Esh-
Gilman had 12-gauge breech-loader.
Having discarded their hunting coats
and vests to make crawling easier, Wag-
ner had only two loads in his gun, and
Eshelman had only two shells 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 raised up. The pelicaus
were setting motionless, and in mopish
attitudes. Fully three hundred were
together on the bar and four loads of
BB's were emptied into them. Eshel-
man fired the fifth shot as the pelicans
attempted to raise and turned over five,
having lost one of the shells from his
shirt pocket Will" worming' it through
the grass. Pelicans set so close togeth-
er that it is with difficulty that they can
raise when suddenly surprised, and they
were slow in getting away, their long
wings with spread of eight feet and
more, striking each other.
Just twenty-one 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, max
ing twenty-five pelicans brought to bag
by five shots. The birds weighed from
fifteen to thirty pounds, their combined
weight being about quarter of ton.
1t 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, green
ish feet, and the skin around the eyes
bears a similar color. Legs of old ones
are more of nm 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 pal
atable the feathers were taken for bed
ding, and several of the finest birds were
preserved for mounting. Cincinnati
ENQUIRER.