THK WHITE PELICAN 371 



of AVinnipeg, being their known eastern outpost. In many 

 of the numberless lalxes of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Al- 

 berta, invarial)ly n])on islands. White Pelicans nest; a col- 

 ony coiitaiiiitii;- aiiywlicrc I'l'om a dozen to several thousand 

 birds. 



While early writers tell us that the White i*elican was at 

 one time moi-e or less frequently seen in our North Atlantic 

 States, there is no record of its ever having nested east of 

 the Mississippi. In western Minnesota, Pelicans nested as 

 recently as 1878, and they doubtless also reared their young 

 at favorable localities in the noitliern })lains states, but the 

 most eastein colony breeding in the United States to-day, is 

 found in ^'ellowstone l*ark . West of the Hockies, in the 

 Great P>asin, there are Pelican settlements on islands in 

 Utah Lake, Utah; and in Washoe and Pyramid Lakes, Ne- 

 vada, while a gi-eat number nest in Lower Klamath Lake on 

 the California-Oregon line and probably also on other lakes 

 of eastern Oregon. 



In Califoinia, they make their home in Eagle Lake in the 

 northern Sierras, and, until it was drained in 190-1:, they 

 nested on Kern Lake at the southern end of the San Joaquin 

 Valley, and I am told that the year after its formation, a 

 company of these birds took possession of an island in the 

 Salton Sea. These birds, therefore, have not only establish- 

 ed the most southern breeding record of their species, but 

 they have also established a record of intelligence in the de- 

 liberate selection of the only type of home in which it is pos- 

 sible for Pelicans to rear their young. 



Conspicuous because of their size, color and gregarious- 

 ness, adult Pelicans would l)e a shining mark for the preda- 

 ceous animals of the mainland, while the fact that the young 

 Pelican cannot fly until he is at least two months old, indi- 

 cates how little chance he would have of reaching this age 

 should his parents select a mainland home. The security af- 

 forded by an ishuul is therefore as essential to the 

 continued existence of the Pelican as it is to other 



