THK OSPREY. 



75 



ent parts of the country. Nature is won- 

 derful in her various moods and some- 

 times misleads us and upsets our theories, 

 as in the case of living- Mastodons of 

 Alaska. It will be a long- time before 



man can clearly understand all of Nature's 

 ways, and learn the habits of her children, 

 and that time may be away down the 

 murky and distant aisles of the future, 

 and then perhaps — never. 



Brown Pelican on Indian River, 



BY DK. MOKKIS GIBBS. 



□ N the Gulf coast, and as well as the 

 Atlantic coast of Florida, are many 

 breeding locations of the Brown 

 Pelican; "pelicanaries,"we may call them. 

 Many of these nest- 

 ing sites were once 

 occupied by several 

 thousands of pairs of 

 birds who annually 

 reared their young- in 

 seclusion; but with 

 the opening up of the 

 country to settlers 

 and tourists, these 

 pelicanaries have 

 been sadly devastat- 

 ed, and many of them 

 totally obliterated. 

 For as soon as reg- 

 ular steam boat lines 

 and railroads can take 

 winter visitors to 

 out-of-the-wa}' pla- 

 ces, then the decima- 

 tion of the creatures 

 of the invaded dis- 

 tricts begins, and 

 like the destruction 

 among the heronries 

 or with the (tuIIs and 

 Terns at the North, 

 it continues until the 

 few remaining birds 

 are driven away. 



During my winter 

 sojourns in the South 

 careful observations 

 convinced me that the wholesale destruc- 

 tion of game, fish and the birds of plum- 

 age is almost wholly due to the destructive 

 desires of the tourists who want to slay 

 everything that walks the earth, swims 

 or flies. The destructive desire is also 

 largely augmented by the demands of 

 giddy, vain women for Heron's plumes and 

 other plumage; a demand which supplies 

 employment to reckless, irresponsible 



GREAT HORNED OWL (FROM LIFE 



Copyiit;hted. 



persons who ruthlessly slaughter right 

 and left during nesting- seasons when 

 feathers are best, and who will keep it 

 up as long as there is money in it. I 

 could write a book 

 full of'condemnatory 

 material on the sub- 

 ject of idle destruc- 

 tion, and the use of 

 plumage for hat dec- 

 oration, but then 

 denunciation is idle. 

 Let me say one word 

 in defense of legiti- 

 mate collecting, 

 whether of birds or 

 eggs : collectors do 

 not accomplish one 

 hundredth of the 

 destruction which 

 occurs seasonally in 

 Florida, then, too, 

 they have something- 

 to show for their 

 efforts. The same 

 will apply to all 

 parts of the country 

 as well. 



On February 17, 

 1891, a party of us 

 visited an extensive 

 nesting site of the 

 Brown Pelican on 

 Indian River, Flor- 

 ida. The pelicanary 

 was situated on an 

 island of three or 

 four acres in extent, and most of us cal- 

 culated there were at least between 3,000 

 and 4,000 birds on the island and vicinity 

 at the time of our arrival, while some 

 maintained that there were at least 

 twice that number, which may be cor- 

 rect, as we well knew that a great number 

 of the birds were away on a fishing trip, 

 as they are known to fly up and down 

 the coast for twenty miles or more for 



