May, 1893.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



13 



hissing at one from the nests, loolted ex- 

 ceedingly grotesque. Many large young sat 

 speechless, from the fact that good-sized fish, 

 head down, filled their mouths and grillets. 

 The protruding tails of the fish were waved 

 in the air as the frightened nestlings swayed 

 about and attempted to disgorge the fish. 

 Although the spines of the dorsal fins pre- 

 sented the wrong way, as the fish are almost 

 always swallowed head first, still not a few 

 did disgorge their last swallowed fish. 



The average number of eggs is undoubt- 

 edly three, but a few nests contained four, 

 and many nests but two eggs. It was diffi- 

 cult to secure sets of fresh eggs complete, as 

 very often a nest was found to hold fresh and 

 badly incubated eggs, and then again, but 

 rarely, young with fresh eggs. The shell is 

 covered invariably with a thick coating of 

 calcareous matter, and as the eggs are gener- 

 ally stained by lying in the nest, it is only 

 possible to have clean specimens by scraping 

 them or getting freshly laid eggs. 



The young for the first few days are naked 

 and most disgusting looking objects. \\'hen 

 very young they must be protected from the 

 sun's rays, which are very strong in Florida 

 even in February. At the time of our trip 

 the temperature in the sun was about 90° 

 Fahr. or more. Quite a number of the very 

 young succumbed to the heat while we were 

 there. Although the larger young can swal- 

 low a good-sized fish, and we identified five 

 distinct species by dissection and from those 

 disgorged, still the very young are supplied 

 with dessicated fish food, and it is my belief 

 the old ones disgorge the food for them at 

 an early age, after the manner of the Herons. 



This rookery has been in existence for 

 years, according to the natives, and was once 

 of much greater extent. The birds must have 

 begun nest building in December and per- 

 haps in November in order to have young 

 of a capacity to swallow a twelve-inch mullet 

 by the middle of February. The birds fre- 

 quently fly immense distances for their food, 

 and may be seen fishing at most any point 



off the shore, where they ride the waves as 

 easily as does a Duck swim on an inland 

 lake. When flying, the birds draws in its 

 head and doubles its neck, and looks, with 

 its long bill, like an enlarged edition of a 

 Woodcock on the wing. As an object to 

 shoot at, it requires no skill whatever, as it 

 can't be missed, and morever is easily injured. 



Of course we secured a good lot of eggs. 

 We were not egg-hogs, but at the same time 

 remembered our friends at the north. More- 

 over, it was one chance in a lifetime. I at- 

 tempted the feat of eating a cooked egg, but 

 found it rank, and totally unfit for food. A 

 starving man could eat it, but as for me, I 

 prefer other \'arieties of egg vittles. 



We made careful dissections of several 

 specimens and many peculiarities in the 

 animal's economy. In the anatomy, nothing 

 was more remarkable than the joining to- 

 gether of the clavicles with the sternum. In 

 other words, the wish-bone was joined at its 

 apex with the breast-bone into one bone. 

 This gives a remarkable appearance to the 

 skeleton, and is a condition which I have 

 found in no other family of birds. 



I stopped one night at a house near the 

 Pelican roost. There was a boy lived there 

 who had visited the island and secured several 

 eggs which were ready to hatch. He was 

 governed in his selection by hearing the 

 young birds peep within their shells. The 

 eggs were taken home and deposited in a 

 large vacant room. During the night in 

 March, the temperature being about 90° 

 Fahr., two of the young birds emerged from 

 their shell, and made the night hideous with 

 their discordant, stridulous notes. In the 

 morning we found that one of the young 

 birds had scrambled fully twenty feet from 

 the place where it had hatched. 



This instance is recorded as evidence of 

 the effect of heat aside from that afforded 

 by the incubating bird, and to show that 

 young birds, Pelicans at least, can free them- 

 selves from the egg shell without assistance. 



G. Sirrom. 



