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VOL. VII. 



NORWICH, CONN., JUNE, 1882. 



NO. 17. 



Malheur Lake, Oregon. 



BY OAPT. CHASt. E. BENDIBE, U. S. A. 



Ajiril 14. 1S75, the writor witli a party of 

 friends started from Camp Harney to Mal- 

 heur Lake (both of whieh places are loca 

 ted in Grant County, in the southeastern 

 portion of Oregon), the lake about twenty 

 five miles south of the post. The ostensi- 

 ble objects of the trip were. (1st.) to hunt 

 water fowl, thousands of which were to be 

 found at that season of the year on the 

 shores of the lake, which was a favorite 

 resting place for them, a sort of half way 

 house on their migrations to and from their 

 breeding places in the northern regions ; 

 and also to try the sailing qualities of a 

 good-sized boat, which a joint stock com- 

 pany of us had constructed during the j^re- 

 vious Winter, and which was to be launched 

 on the lake for the first time. The ice hav- 

 ing only broken up a few days previously, 

 and occasional patches of snow were still 

 to be seen in places on the plain interven- 

 ing between the lake and the post, so that 

 the idea of possibly finding eggs so early 

 in the season never once eiitered my head, 

 and I made no preparations whatever for 

 their care. However, early as it was I 

 found that several species had commenced 

 nesting already, among these the American 

 White Pelican, {-Felecnnus erythrorhyn- 

 I'/niK, (jrincL). whose eggs were still rave in 

 most collections, and well prepared speei 

 mens especial desiderata. 



We made our first camp on Sylvies River, 

 a large triV)utarv of the lake, some sixteen 

 miles from the post, and from which point 

 it looker! simple cnono-h to get into the 



lake — till we tried it. A thick belt of heavy 

 tules about a mile \vide intervened between 

 the i^oint where the stream ceased to be 

 navigable and the open waters of the lake, 

 which we found to be nowhere more than 

 a few feet deep. It took us till noon of 

 the 10th to find a channel which finally al- 

 lowed us to float, our }>o.it on the lake 

 proper. We were well repaid, however, 

 for all our labor Swan. Geese and Ducks 

 were to l)e seen in all directions, and sev- 

 eral low. narrow islands near the eastern 

 end of the lake seemed to be literally, cov- 

 ered with water fowl of various kinds. On 

 landing on the nearest island I found it 

 was occupied by quite a colony of the 

 American White Pelican, the Great Blue 

 Heron and the Double-crested Cormorant, 

 besides various species of Ducks and a few 

 C.inada Geese. There are five of these 

 islands, separated from each other by nar- 

 row channels. The two largest are each 

 about six hundred yards long and not over 

 a hundred yards wide at any place, gener- 

 ally less : the central portion, forming a sort 

 of a ridge, is covered with a heavy growth 

 of a species of grease wood, extending in 

 a strip from ten to fifteen feet wide the 

 whole of their length. Close to the east- 

 ern edge of this strip of grease wood, on a 

 dry sandy slope which was well sheltered 

 from the wind, I found my first Pelican's 

 eggs, and not more than ten feet from them 

 was quite a patch of snow. The nests, if 

 tliey can be called such, consisted simply 

 of rubbish scraped up by th<' birds in the 

 inunediate vicinity, to keep the eggs from 

 rolling about, the eggs themselves laying 

 on the bai'e sand. About one-fourth of 



