296 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



On the west coast of Florida the normal breeding season begins in 

 April and on the Louisiana coast in February, only one brood being 

 raised in these localities, so far as I know. The pelicans of the Louisi- 

 ana reservation are well protected, but they are not overcrowded and 

 can all breed at one season. On the South Carolina coast their nest- 

 ing season begins in May, fresh eggs having been taken by Mr. C. S, 

 Day, of Boston, on May 8, 1904, and, according to Mr. Arthur T. 

 Wayne, the breeding season is extended into August. Here the nests 

 are placed on the ground on small islands barely above high-water 

 mark, so that the eggs are frequently washed away by spring tides. 

 That the brown pelicans of Pelican Island formerly built their nests 

 in trees is shown by Doctor Bryant's (1859) report of the conditions 

 prevailing in 1858, but with the disappearance of the trees the birds 

 gradually adopted the habit of nesting on the ground, though on two 

 occasions they resorted to nearby islands and built their nests in the 

 mangroves. On the west coast of Florida there are still several large 

 colonies of brown pelicans nesting in trees. In the reservations at the 

 mouth of the Mississippi there are several immense and many smaller 

 colonies of broAvn pelicans breeding on the mud lumps where there 

 are no trees. 



The ground nests yhtj greatly in size and structure from prac- 

 tically nothing to large well-built nests of sticks, reeds, straws, 

 palmetto leaves and grasses, this material being selected from what 

 is most readily available; the remains of old nests are frequently 

 used and often fresh material is stolen from newly constructed nests 

 provided the owner is not on hand to defend its property. The 

 average nests on Pelican Island measured from 18 to 24 inches in 

 diameter and were built up usually 4 or 5 inches but sometimes as 

 high as 10 inches. Arboreal nests are more firmly constructed of 

 similar materials on substantial platforms of sticks securely in- 

 terwoven with the branches of the mangroves which are well adapted 

 for supporting them, even with the additional weight of the fully 

 grown young. 



Courtship. — Mr. Stanley Clisby Arthur has sent me the follow- 

 ing notes on the courtship of the brown pelican, which I haA^e never 

 seen: 



The courtship of the pelican is quite what one would expect from a bird 

 of its other undemonstrative habits. I witnessed it once on Isle Grand- 

 gosicr and it marks the only time I have seen a pair of brown pelicans to- 

 gether when I could unhesitatingly identify the male from its mate. The 

 female squatted close to the bare ground while the male slowly circled her 

 with ponderius, elephantine tread. While he circumnavigated the course he 

 lifted his wings slightly and tilted his neck far back, but there was none of 

 the pronounced strutting usually indulged in by other birds, particularly those 

 of the gallinaceous order. Both wore most lugubrious expressions during the 

 whole of the courtship and the occasion was more befitting the solemnity of 



