- THE PELICANS. 197 



Individual variation, both in size and in the details of colora- 

 tion, is very considerable in this species. Most descriptions of 

 the perfectly adult bird say that the plumage is tinged with 

 peach-blossom pink; but in only a single example among the 

 very large number examined by me (including both skins and 

 freshly killed birds) was the faintest trace of this color visible, 

 and that confined to a few feathers of the back. The straw- 

 yellow color of the narrow jugular feathers and lesser wing- 

 coverts, however, seems to be always a characteristic of the 

 adult birds, both in winter and summer, though much paler in 

 the former season. The black along the lower edge of the 

 mandible and the squarish spot on its side are not infrequently 

 entirely absent. The maxillary excrescence varies greatly both 

 in size and shape. Frequently it consists of a single piece, 

 nearly as high as long, its vertical outlines almost parallel, 

 and the upper outline quite regularly convex, the largest speci- 

 men seen being about three inches high, by as many in length. 

 More frequently, however, it is very irregular in shape, usually 

 less elevated, and not infrequently with ragged anterior, or even 

 posterior, continuations. This excrescence, which is assumed 

 gradually in the spring, reaches its perfect development in the 

 pairing season, and is dropped before or soon after the young 

 are hatched; simultaneously with the shedding of this append- 

 age the^nuchal crest falls off, and in its place a patch of .short 

 brownish gray feathers appears; this disappears with the fall 

 moult, when the occiput is entirely unadorned, there being 

 neither crest nor colored patch. 



The White Pe.ican passes through Illinois in its northward 

 journey from the southern waters to its breeding grounds in 

 April, and returns to its winter quarters during the latter half 

 of September and first half of October. Its breeding places are 

 scattered, localities which are sufficiently secluded being now 

 "few and far between." It is said to breed in portions of Minne- 

 sota, as it does in many places farther to the west and north, 

 and there are reasons for supposing that it may breed in Florida 

 and Texas, as well as in intermediate portions of the Gulf coast. 



In a ve?y excellent account of the feeding habits of this bird. 

 Col. N. S. Goss observes that naturalists who "have not seen 

 the White Pelicans upon their feeding grounds, have without 

 doubt read Audubon's interesting description of the manner in 



