372 THE WHITE PELICAN 



colonial, ground-nesting birds. It lias, however, always 

 been my belief that such island colonies were not the result 

 of an actual, dennite selection but that they were formed 

 cumulatively, tnrougn tne mstinctive return of tfie young to 

 the place of birth in which their parents had chanced to 

 settle ; while those birds which took up their abode on the 

 mainland, were either themselves destroyed or, in any event, 

 never succeeded in rearing their young. But the birds 

 which are reported to have occupied this newly formed 

 island in the ^Salton Sea, showed their evident appreciation 

 of the desirability of an insular home, and in Saskatchewan 

 I found evidence of this same type of intelligence. 



In the summer, therefore, the White Pelican is an inhab- 

 itant of fresh water lakes and the latitude to which it has ex- 

 tended its range, shows that it has reacquired some of the 

 territory it was forced to abandon dui'ing the maximum de- 

 velopment of the Glacial Period, 



In the winter, however, the White Pelican is chiefly a 

 dweller on salt water. Some individuals spend this season 

 in the lakes of the Mexican tableland. The greater number, 

 however, winter along the coasts of southern California — 

 and particularly in the Gulf of California at the mouth of 

 the Colorado — south to Guatemala ; they are also found 

 along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, from the mouth of 

 the Mississippi south to Mexico on the west side, and to 

 Cape Sable, at the extreme tip of Florida, on the east side. 

 On the east coast of Florida, it is a singular fact that AVhite 

 Pelicans appear to spend the winter only in the Mosquito 

 Lagoon. On one occasion, I saw three of these birds pass- 

 ing up the coast at Palm Beach, presumably en route to the 

 one spot on the Atlantic seaboard which they are now known 

 regularly to frequent. 



In the commonly accepted meaning of the word, the 

 White Pelican is not a game bird. Its flesh is useless for 

 food, and it will neither " flush " nor" stool;" but I can 

 commend it to the camera hunter as a quarry in every way 



