Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1888 — A Bird from Over the Sea. [ARTICLE]

A Bird from Over the Sea.

As Mr. Pride was attending to some matters connected with.the electric light across the river, says the Idaho States® man, he saw a large white bird, larger than a swan, circling overhead. -Mr. Pride watched the bird until it alighted in the pond near by, when he telephoned to John Ridenbaugh to bring his gun and come over. The bird swam round and round in the pond, Mr. Pride’s excitement growing more intense all the the time, fearing that the game would fly away before John would get there, but John soon put in appearance and shot the bird. It proved to be a species of Mediterranean pelican, such as so far as is known has never been seen in this country before. Its plumage is white as snow, the wings tipped with black, and it lias a long, arching neck like a swan; a bill nearly a foot in length, and on the under part a narrow pouch in which the bird carries its food and water, thus enabling it to make extensive flights across barren wastes-and over lofty mountatHS.It measures nearly nine feet from tip to tip-- - - * ’