THE 



WILSON BULLETIN 



NO. 104 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY 

 VOL. XXX SEPTEMBER, 1918 NO. 3 



OLD SERIES VOL. XXX. NEW SERIES VOL. XXV. 



THE BROWN PELICAN —A GOOD CITIZEN. 



BY ALFRED M. BAILEY^ LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM. 



Fishermen along- the g'ulf coast, especially of Florida and 

 Texas, have been complaining that the Brown Pelican is a 

 destroyer of food lish, and these men have been flooding- the 

 offices of the Food Administration with letters asking- that 

 the pelican be exterminated. 



The head of the Department of Conservation of Louisiana, 

 Mr. M. L. Alexander, having- received notice of these com- 

 plaints, sent out an investigating- committee to collect speci- 

 mens along the gulf coast, and gather all the data possible 

 concerning the different fish-eating birds. The Department, 

 together with the State Museum, has long been compiling 

 notes on the value of different birds aside from the esthetic, 

 and although we were convinced that the pelican was not 

 guilty as charged, our data was not sufficient to give entire 

 satisfaction. 



The party, under the leadership of the State Ornithologist. 

 Mr. Stanley Clisby Arthur, Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson of the 

 Audubon Society, and the writer as the representative of the 

 State Museum, left New Orleans the 6th of June on the 

 Department yacht, "Alexandria." It was our intention to 

 start off the Mississippi coast, and work westward, touching 

 all places where pelicans were known to congregate in any 

 numbers, and compile our data as circumstances warranted. 



