G8 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 104 



substantial nests, while on, the ^lud-lunips, a few coarse sticks 

 clumsily piled together sufficed. It is interesting to note the 

 great range of time for nesting among the ditTerent colonies. 

 On the Chandeleur chain we found fresh eggs only, while on 

 the Mud-lumps, scarcely a hundred miles away, we found 

 young six weeks old, — and not even an egg from there on to 

 Texas, although the birds had started building on Timbalier. 

 The first nesting birds on the Lumps chose the islands farth- 

 est out, and as these grew too densely populated, the islands 

 nearer in were occupied until the innermost one had its 

 pelican colony, — fresh eggs and very small young, while 

 the birds on the outermost were already large enough to 

 leave. The lighthouse keeper told us the outer islands would 

 again be populated, that the birds nested continually from the 

 middle of April until August, which raises the interesting 

 question of whether the pelican raises more than one set of 

 young a year. We took specimens in winter plumage, or 

 rather the brown immature plumage which showed all signs 

 of breeding, and other birds taken in the highest of plumage 

 were evidently not breeding at all. We enjoyed our little 

 survey, and although we desired more time among them, we 

 came away happy with the knowledge that the pelican is 

 safe, "not guilty" of being a food slacker. 



NOTES ON THE FEBRUARY BIRDLIFE OF SOUTH- 

 ERN MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 



CHRESWELL J. HUNT, CHICAGO, HXINGIS. 



I arrived in New Orleans about noon of January 28, 1918. 

 That afternoon, just across the Mississippi River, in Algiers, 

 I heard my first wild Mockingbird sing. It was a warm after- 

 noon and Meadowlarks were also singing and a number of 

 Crackles flew over. It surely did seem good after the snow- 

 drifts that I had navigated in Chicago the previous morning. 

 The following three days were spent about the city of New 



* Read before the Chicago Ornithological Society April 9th, 

 1918. 



