April, 1919] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



had practically completed breeding. Over 300 de- 

 serted nests and but four occupied nests were dis- 

 covered three with well-grown young and one with 

 eggs. 



RING-BILLED GULLS ( LaTus delaTvarensis) were 

 noted in company with the last species. 



forester's terns (Sterna forsteri) and COMMON 

 TERNS (Sterna hirundo) were numerous, almost 

 equalling the Caspian Terns in numbers. The gulls 

 and terns all consorted together freely. 



BLACK TERNS ( Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis) 

 were entirely absent although they are quite numer- 

 ous in the south end of Lake Winnipeg. 



WHITE PELICAN (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) 

 were not noted, although excreta and two humeri 

 were found. However, the species was regularly 

 observed fishing in Swampy Bay, five miles from 

 Pelican Island, so it probably is a frequent visitor 

 here also. 



SCAUP DUCKS (Marila mar'da or M. affinis) were 

 observed, five or si.x individuals together, resting on 

 the water not far offshore from the ternery. 



MALLARD (Anas boschas) were observed and 

 one adult female collected. 



WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS (Oidemia deglandi) are 

 frequently caught and drowned in the fishermen's 

 nets. They probably visit Pelican Island frequently. 



Two or three LEAST SANDPIPERS (P'uob'.a minu- 

 tilla) were observed on the beach. 



LESSER YELLOW-LEGS (Totanus flavipes) were 

 seen feeding along the water-edge. 



A PECTORAL SANDPIPER (Phobia maculaia) was 

 shot out of a flock of five feeding near the ternery. 



Several SPOTTED SANDPIPERS (Aciitis maculaia) 

 were found feeding along the shore. 



Night hawks (Cbordedes virginianus) were 

 noted at Swampy Bay and very probably inhabit 

 Pelican Island. None was observed probab'.y 

 because both visits were made during daylight 

 hours. 



CROWS (Corvus brachyrhynchos) were common 

 on the island. When the ternery was first visited, the 

 crows gathered near at hand to watch the pro- 

 ceedings. When the second visit was paid, the 

 crows were disturbed from the area of the ternery 

 itself, where they were engaged in eating the 

 Caspian Terns' eggs. The crows appear to feed 

 largely upon the dead fish cast up by the water 

 and they were constantly observed patrolling the 

 shores in search of such food. Nests were found 

 in considerable numbers. 



SAVANAH SPARROWS (Passerculus sandivichcnsis 

 savanna) were in song and apparently breeding near 

 the ternery. 



CEDAR WAXWINGS (Bombyc'dla cedrorum) wers 

 common in the trees on Pelican Island. They were 



still in flocks and had not yet, apparently, begun 

 nesting. 



RED-EYED N'IREOS (Vireosylva olivacea) were 

 noted here as they were on every island and bit 

 of the wooded shore the authors visited during the 

 whole trip. 



YELLOW WARBLERS (Dendroiza aestiva aesliva) 

 were common and breeding. 



BLACKBURNIAN WARBLERS (D^ndroica blacff- 

 burniae) were noted and were in full song. 



The discovery of the Caspian Tern Colony on 

 Pelican Island is especially interesting in the light 

 of our knowledge of the distribution of this bird. 

 The A. O. U. Check list (1) gives the winter range 

 of this species as "South Atlantic and Gulf Coasts". 

 To and from this region, logically, the Pelican 

 Island terns must each year journey; yet there is not 

 a single record of a Caspian Tern being collected in 

 Central or Southern Manitoba. The route of migra- 

 tion that would seem most reasonable is that down 

 the Red- River-Mississippi Valley chain, yet this ab- 

 sence of records proves fairly conclusively that the 

 Caspian Terns do not regularly or in numbers, tra- 

 verse this path. The alternative suggestion is a 

 migration route by way of Hudson Bay, thence to 

 the Atlantic coast and thence southward. The 

 Pelican Island and Reindeer Island colonies might 

 thus possibly be explained as an invasion of this 

 species from Hudson Bay, these islands the out- 

 liers of the numerous islands including Berens Island 

 being the' first of the group upon which the species 

 has established itself. The birds in going to their 

 winter range, still probably use the old route of 

 invasion and travel circuitcusly out by way of 

 Hudson's Bay and the Atlantic coast. Analagous 

 to this might be cited the case of the Bobolink 

 y'Dolichonyx oryzivorus) which, according to Ccoke 

 (4) has invaded Utah by extending its range far 

 westward, then southward yet in returning to its 

 winter home in southern Brazil, the Utah bobolinks 

 do not go directly, but move along their old invasion 

 route. I.e., they first journey northward, then east- 

 ward, then they turn south to their distant winter 

 range. It is conceivable that in the case of the 

 bobolink, a frequenter of damp meadows, its choice 

 of route is partly, perhaps largely, determined by 

 following such suitable localities and therefore it 

 does not cross the arid regions to the south and 

 southeast of the points reached in its new advance. 

 Indeed it is only since the extension of irrigation 

 in certain parts of Utah that it has made its appear- 

 ance there. Whereas the Caspian Tern, having 

 once got into the lake region has practically an 

 unbroken inland water system over which it could 

 return to the south. 



The Pelican Island colony is declared by the 



