LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 295 



as the only breeding resort of brown pelicans on the east coast of 

 Florida. "In 1858" Doctor Bryant (1859) wrote: 



The most extensive breeding place was in a small island called Pelican 

 Island, about twenty miles north of Fort Capron. The nests here were placed 

 on the tops of mangrove troos, which were about the size and shape of large 

 apple trees. Breeding in company with the pelicans were thousands of herons, 

 Peale egret, the rufous egret, and little white egret, with a few pairs of the 

 great blue heron and roseate spoonbills ; and immense numbers of man-o-war 

 birds and white ibises were congregated upon the island. 



At the time of our visit all but a few scattered dead or dying black 

 mangrove trees and one cabbage palmetto had disappeared and even 

 those have since succumbed. All of the birds but the pelicans have 

 long since gone, leaving the silent, dignified and stupid birds in sole 

 possession of what is now a Government reservation for their pro- 

 tection. I know of no more favorable place for the intimate study 

 of the home life of an interesting species than Pelican Island, where 

 continual protection has made it possible to watch and photograph 

 the birds at short range, even without concealment. When we landed 

 in our small sailboat the nearest pelicans of course took wing, but 

 they circled about the island and soon came scaling back to settle 

 again upon their nests or stand in solemn rows upon the shore. 

 Many settled upon the water near us, floating buoyantly upon it in 

 their characteristic attitude, with head and neck erect and with 

 bill pointing downward against the breast. The same pose is as- 

 sumed when standing or wallring, but wdien fully settled upon the 

 nest or when sleeping the head is drawn down between the shoulders 

 and the bill points forward. 



The breeding season at Pelican Island is very much prolonged, 

 sometimes covering the greater part of the year. Ordinarily the 

 birds arrive in November or December, but sometimes as early as 

 October, congregating about the island in large flocks. Nest building 

 soon begins, and bj^ December egg laying is well under way. This con- 

 tinues all through the winter and spring uninterruptedly and often 

 well into the summer. We found plenty of fresh eggs in April, as 

 well as young of all ages up to fully grown birds on the wing, show- 

 ing at a glance the whole life history of the young bird. Whether 

 their prolongation of the breeding season is due to protection or to 

 the fact that this is the only breeding resort to which the pelicans of 

 so many miles of coast have access, I am unable to say ; but probably 

 both -causes have had their effect and certainly the vast number of 

 pelicans which rear their young on this island could not do so in a 

 breeding season as short as prevails elsewhere. It has been suggested 

 that the later layings are second broods of the same birds that had 

 bred earlier, but I doubt if this has been satisfactorily proven, and 

 there seems to be no evidence of second broods elsewhere. 



