PELICAN ISLAND 



89 



coast do not nest until April, the earliest recorded date for 

 egg-laying being April 21. There is occasionalh" a supple- 

 mentary breeding season on Pelican Island ; from one hun^ 

 dred to three hundred birds sometimes laying late in April. 

 Whether this represents a first or second brood is unknown, 

 but it is appai-ently com])ai'able to the normal west coast 

 breeding season. 



That there should be six 

 months difference in the 

 breeding time of birds which 

 pass their year under essen- 

 tially similar conditions, is as 

 surprising as though the 

 mangroves of eastern Flor- 

 ida were to blossom half a 

 year earlier than those of the 

 west coast. With the infor- 

 mation now at our command 

 the case appears to be inex- 

 plicable. 



As late at least as i\pril 1 

 one rarely if ever sees ;i 

 Brown Pelican on the gull' 

 coast of Florida with the full 

 brown hind neck of the breed- 

 ing plumage ; while on the At- 

 lantic Coast I have seen but 

 one adult bird with the white 

 hind neck of the non-breeding 

 plumage. Birds from the two coasts possibly therefore do 

 not intermingle and the difference in their nesting seasons 

 which this difference in plumage correlates, may be a result 

 of long continued isolation. The April nesting of a few east 

 coast birds nuiy, therefore, represent the survival uf a uear- 

 Iv obsolete habit. 



Adult Pelicans in Breeding 

 neck) and Non-breeding 

 neck) Plumage 



(white 



