74 BIRDS 



used for fertilizer on nearby farms. As to the truth of 

 this I cannot vouch. 



The island had been flooded a few days before my 

 visit and thousands of eggs and destroyed nests were 

 piled in promiscuous heaps at various points. Great 

 numbers of the old birds were sitting on the water near 

 the island in a most pensive and solemn mood, if one 

 could judge from their actions and appearance. Some of 

 the birds had taken to the nearby Long Island, separating 

 the river from the Atlantic, and I could plainly see their 

 white heads as they perched in the mangrove trees. 



A few years ago the Pelicans tried to rear their 

 young on Long Island but the mosquitoes were so bad 

 that the birds had to abandon the venture, at the ex- 

 pense of thousands of young that were literally killed by 

 the pests. Mosquitoes do not thrive or remain on the 

 treeless, wind-blown and isolated small islands in the 

 river; hence the tortured birds soon returned to their old 

 haunts. These particular Pelican Island birds prefer 

 terrestrial nest-sites, as was illustrated when they moved 

 to the wooded island before mentioned, where most of 

 the nests were built on the ground. (Fig. 21.) 



On the west coast of Florida I have seen thousands 

 of nests in trees and not a single one on the ground. I 

 presume that if all the trees were removed the birds 

 would gladly accept the new conditions and adopt the 

 ground-nesting habit. One would suppose that this awk- 

 ward big bird would have much difficulty in alighting, 

 balancing and feeding its young from the small branches 

 surrounding the arboreal nest-site, and such is the case; 

 however, a very small percentage of the young birds 

 wander far enough from the nest to fall to the ground or 

 to be out of reach of the parent bird at meal-time. 



I have, for hours, stood in my tent within twenty 

 feet of fifteen Pelicans' nests, each containing two or 

 three young birds, and watched the movements of the old 

 ones while they were feeding the young, and I have never 

 seen a nestling fail to get its rations. But I did see some 

 dead young birds hanging in the trees and a very few on 

 the ground, for the old birds do not go to the ground 

 to feed fallen young. 



