998 



.VESTS AA'D EGGS OF AUSTRALIA A' BIRDS. 



Pelicans, while at another time the birds were in siich numbers on the 

 Darling tliat the sight was described as being quite dazzling to behold. 



The Pelican is fovuid in all parts of Australia and the neighbouiiug 

 islands. Tlie last example I liappened to notice I saw from a railway 

 carriage. It was solitary, standing in a sheltered swamp just outside 

 the railway fence, as the I\Iclbom'ne-Sydney express rushed past. 



Pelicans haunt the shallows and islets of the sea, as welt as inland 

 waters. A Pelican rookery existed on a rocky islet oS the north-west 

 coast of Tasmania, which has been visited by iield naturalists of late 

 years. Owing to that visiting the birds have deserted the place, so 

 I hear. I need not mention who was there last, but the following is 

 Mr. Du.dley Le Souef's accoiuxt : — "About a dozen pair,? of these birds 

 nested on Penguin Rocks, on a small patch of clear ground, just above 

 high-water mark, and suiTouuded with high tussocky grass. The nests 

 were very simple — a few sticks and bits of grass put together, and 

 almost level with the ground. There were one or two eggs or yoimg 

 birds in the nests, the latter being of various ages, from three weeks old 

 downwards. One little one, apparently about three days old, managed, 

 in the absence of its parents, to crawl from its rightful nest into that 

 of its neighbour, which contained a bird about three weeks old. The elder 

 bird immediately commenced vigorously pecking the little stranger, and 

 would soon have killed it had the latter not been removed. The young 

 had no down on, and their skin was bare, tlie regular lines of gi-owth 

 where the young feathers were appearmg were plainly discernible. 

 When they crawl they appear to stick their beaks into the soft soil, 

 and thus jKill themselves along, as they have not j)ower to stand up 

 and walk. 



Mr. E. D. v^tkiuson, C.E., to whom I was first indebted for Pelicans' 

 eggs from this locality, said that the birds he robbed on the 8th October 

 laid again, but on a different island. The atmosphere surrounding the 

 nesting places was decidedly " strong " from the presence of stale 

 fish, &c. 



During our trip to the Furneaux (Jroup, on the Tasmaniau side of 

 Bass Strait, we learnt that Pehcans were breeding on Sentinel Island, 

 and that there was a large rookery on Little Green Island, between Dog 

 and Flinders Islands. Formerly there used to be a large rookery on 

 Pelican Island, Franklin Sound, which was destroyed uy removing the 

 guano deposits. Another rookery used to exist on Pascoe Island, but 

 the depasturing of sheep disturbed the birds and drove them away. 



The late Mr. Thomas M. Turner (H.M. Customs), when stationed 

 at Port Albert in the early days, took young Pelicans on St. Margaret's 

 Island, Shallow Inlet. Pelican Island, Wcstemport, was also a nesting 

 place in the " sixties." Mr. Wilham Smith writes : " On this islet, in 

 March, 1864, Mr. Peters, a collector of natural history subjects, then 

 residing at Qucensfen-y, in the same locality, and myself landed, and 

 captured forty young Pelicans, fully fledged, but unable to fly. These 

 were sent to the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne. Great numbers of 

 young birds in all stages of growth, and also eggs in nests, were present 

 on the islet." 



