30 Birds of Colorado 



long line, driving the fishes before them into the shallow 

 water and catching them when floundering. They 

 fill the elastic pouches beneath their long bills with 

 great quantities of fishes, which they devour at leisure 

 or carry oflf and disgorge to feed their young. 



They breed in great communities, generally on islands 

 in lakes. The nest is on the ground, sometimes a simple 

 depression in the sand, sometimes put together with 

 a few sticks and weeds. The eggs, usually two, are oval, 

 white and chalky, and measure 3" 50 x 2-30. 



Brown Pelican. Pelecanus occidentalis. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 126— Colorado Record— Smith 10, p. 133. 



Description. — Adult — Top of the head and a spot on the upper-breast 

 straw-yeUow, a white Hne on either side of the breast ; hind-head 

 and neck brown, rest of the body silvery grey except the primaries, 

 which are black ; under-parts brown streaked with white. Length 

 50 "0 ; wing 19"5 ; tarsus 2"65 ; bill 11 "0. After the breeding season 

 the bird's head and neck are white tinged with straw-yellow ; young 

 birds are similar but duller. 



Distribution.— The Atlantic coasts of tropical and subtropical America 

 breeding north to South Carolina ; accidental in other parts of the 

 United States. 



According to H. G. Smith a single example of this species, now 

 preserved in the State Museum at Denver, was killed on Wood's Lake, 

 Thomasville, Colorado, by IVIr. P. J. Engelbrecht in June, 1908. This 

 is the only record for the State. 



ORDER ANSERES. 



This order includes the Ducks, Geese and Swans, 

 and forms a well-marked and clearly circumscribed 

 group of birds. Externally they can be distinguished 

 by their characteristically shaped bill, which is generally 

 broad, flattened and depressed, and is covered by a 

 soft membrane except at the tip of the upper mandible, 

 where there is a hard nail ; furthermore both mandibles 

 have, just inside their cutting -edges, a series of horny 



