M 



ay. 



1919] 



The Canadian Field- Naturalist 



39 



about 500. The island is less than two acres in 

 extent. The east end slopes to the water and is 

 quite narrow, and from there to the western ex- 

 tremity the ground gradually rises until it is about 

 fifteen feet above the water. There were at that 

 time about one dozen Balm of Gilead trees, a few 

 willows, and one spruce tree, mostly on the higher 

 part of the island, some of which were dead. The 

 Balm of Gilead trees were about one foot in 

 diameter and thirty to forty feet high. The only 

 grass that grew on the island was close to the 

 waters edge. A very strong growth of nettles cov- 

 ered practically all the higher part of the island. 

 Running through the centre of the island from the 

 south there was a small depression on which nothing 

 was growing, and it was here that the Pelicans 

 nested. Scattered all over this sandy loam were 

 hundreds of eggs which had never hatched, now 

 entirely dried up inside. These were about the size 

 of goose eggs, but the surface was quite rough and 

 chalky. 



On May 29 in the following year, 1909, I visited 

 the island again and found about the same number 

 of Pelicans. Most of them on my approach were 

 out on the stony bar, but there were about fifty up 

 the little draw where the eggs were on our first 

 visit. Before I landed these quietly walked to the 

 water and swam away to join the others. The 

 stench that seemed to be everywhere after leaving 

 the water, was beyond description, and I thought 

 it would be impossible to remain long enough to 

 make the investigations I hoped to. However, I 

 soon got used to it; perhaps I forgot it when all the 

 varied sights came before me. Climbing up the 

 bank I soon came to the nests, some with eggs inside, 

 but often with as many outside. The nests were 

 nothing more than depressions in the loam, with a 

 slight banking up on the outside. There was no 

 lining whatever, and it was evident that different 

 birds used the same nests, from the various sizes of 

 the eggs. The number of eggs varied from one 

 to five, and at this date they were very little in- 

 cubated. About one-third of the eggs were scat- 

 tered here and there over this part of the island, 

 some quite a distance from any nest, and I concluded 

 that these must have been thrown out by the birds 

 when they left the nests hurriedly, as no doubt they 

 are very clumsy in their movements on land. This, 

 then, would explain the great number of eggs that 

 were not hatched the previous year. 



During my inspection of this breeding ground there 

 were many other sights on all sides to interest one. 

 Up in the larger trees there were Great Blue Herons, 

 some on their nests, and others keeping guard. On 

 the small trees were about a dozen Double Crested 



Cormorants, some of which were setting on their 

 nests of three and four beautiful bluish eggs. These 

 nests were small and flat, built of sticks and put 

 together very loosely. In a hollow stump I found 

 a Golden-Eye setting on a nest full of eggs. A 

 little further on, a Mallard flew up from her nest 

 of well incubated eggs. House Wrens, Yellow 

 Warblers, Yellowthroats, and Tree Swallows were 

 nesting on the island, and on the shore Spotted 

 Sandpipers and Yellow Legs were feeding. 



The following July another visit was made, and 

 as the island was approached the Pelicans came to 

 meet us. Up on the island we could see what 

 looked like a small flock of sheep huddled together. 

 These proved to be the young Pelicans, the entire 

 increase for the year of this colony, nineteen only. 

 It seemed a tragedy to think of this small numbsr 

 from perhaps six hundred eggs. There were the 

 usual number of unhatched eggs lying around, at 

 least several hundred. As I moved toward the 

 young ones they waddled off slowly, but gave no 

 note of alarm. Some of the old birds flew down 

 over the island, and very rarely gave a small cry, 

 this was the only note I ever heard from them. The 

 stench at this time was even worse than in May, 

 likely due to the number of dead fish lying around, 

 which were partly decomposed. About a month 

 later when motoring through the lake we came onto 

 the little flock of young, still nineteen in number. 



The following two or three years this colony 

 used the island for their summer home, but the 

 land around the lake was gradually being taken up, 

 and no doubt farm boys wanted to see the big 

 birds, and this with the ever increasing number of 

 motor boats on the lakes, must have disturbed the 

 Pelicans so much that they deserted it entirely. The 

 Government made the lake a preserve and appointed 

 one of the settlers a guardian, who posted notices 

 forbidding anyone landing on the island, but it was 

 too late, and people are wondering where the 

 former owners of the island have gone. A half- 

 breed told me that many years ago the Pelicans 

 nested on all the islands in these lakes, and that 

 they were as plentiful as geese in the fall. He said 

 the Cree name for them was Cha-Chac-Kw. 



Last fall. Dr. R. M. Anderson, of the Canadian 

 Geological Survey, and I spent some time on Pelican 

 island, and there were no signs whatever of Pelicans 

 being there during recent years. All the trees had 

 fallen and the entire surface of the island was 

 covered with nettles. 1 never saw a Pelican migrat- 

 ing, and as Camrose is directly south of where this 

 colony lived, I am of the opinion that they must 

 come and go by night, or they would have been 

 noticed passing over. 



