PKLKCANUS. 359 



AlH'l/r MAI.K. — (r'fiyifni! nJiiiir nlji/ri' mi'l hi-Imr jiirre ichite : n Hiir of fpallnrx aliDuj the shunliler, 

 thi' Kcitpuliirs, aoiii'' of llm iitw.r innlian and //in lar(/er series uf th,- iimiti'i- uniig-coivrts <i'iul (/iiills 

 Mark: xiihn (tf llic rump, sanip of ilii- amalh'r iiiiper tail-covprl^ mo/ flu: tuil-fpathers black. Total 

 li'itJ^f/i ill tin' Jfps/i ,7,S' iiirlii'n, iviiif/ I'l, taU S\'i, hill IS, Irii'o'f ■'/. 



AliULT FKMALh;. '>uiiil(ir in phiinai/e to tin' otoln. 



DislrihiUion. — Nortli-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, (Queensland, 

 New South Wales, \'ictoria. South Australia, Central Australia, Western Australia, Islands of 

 Bass Strait, Tasmania, New Guinea. 



gF>N favourable situations the I'eiicaii is distributed over nearly the whole of the Australian 

 -t continent, the Islands of Bass Strait, Tasmania, the Islands of Torres Strait and portion 

 of New Guinea. It frequents alike the estuaries of rivers and mud llats of the coast and 

 contiguous islands, and the inland rivers and lakes of the interi(jr portions of the continent. .At 

 sea one may frequently observe it from the deck- of some coasting vessel whitening some 

 isolated rock with its apparently, in the distance, pure white plumage, sailing majestically 

 away, or taking flight on too close an aproach. It is a bird that one does not require as a rule 

 to go a great distance from the conhnes of any large coastal city to obser\e. My tirst acquaint- 

 ance with this species was near Melbourne, X'ictoria, in my early boyhood days. At that time 

 Albert Park Lal:e, the mouth of the Varra River, the Botanic Gardens, and that stretch 

 of sandy waste between .\Ibert Bark and St. Kilda, the low lying parts of which were covered 

 with brackish swamps, now known as Middle I'ark, were all resorts of this species. All these 

 places have now either been drtiined or improved, and one would probably look in \ain to find a 

 Pelican, although, perhaps, would be more fortunate at Altona Bay, and on towards Point Cook-. 

 It is more frequently met with in the neighbourhood of Sydney, but in limited numbers, generally 

 in >mall flocks of four toei,L;ht or more in number, although one may often see isolated e.xamples. 

 Favourite feeding grounds are the mud llats at the entrance of Cook's River, Botany Bay, the 

 upper parts of the Parramatta River, and the shores of Lalce Narrabeen and Port Hacking. 

 In Queensland I observed it near the entrance of the Brisbane River, but it was far more 

 comnion on Cook Island, in the vicinity of the entrance to the Tweed River, in the north-eastern 

 portion of New South Wales, and where it breeds. Inland, in the latter State, it frequents the 

 margins of rivers and lakes, especially in the Southern and Western Districts, breeding in 

 favourable seasons in the iieiglibourhood of the Murray River and on an island in Lake Boola- 

 boulka. It breeds in similar situations in North-western \'ictoria. Dr. D'Ombrain showing me 

 an interesting photogia'^^h of a breeding place on Pelican Island, in Lake Corangamite, with a 

 number of young birds crowded together for mutual protection. I have also received the eggs 

 of this species taken on an island in one of the Gippsland Lakes, in South-eastern \'ictoria: also 

 from various islands in Bass Strait. 



While the Pelican is thoroughly at home on the water, it has an awkward rolling gait 

 when on land. Gften liave I seen them in X'ictoria at Fishermen's Bend, near the mouth of the 

 Yarra River, and on French Island in Western Point Bay, with an ungainly walk waddle up 

 to where the fishermen had just left the seaweed and refuse from their frequently drawn nets, to 

 secure some spoil. These birds devour a large number of fish, and at Albert Park Lake, on 

 one occasion, I saw one wrestle with and finally capture a large-sized eel. Stomachs of specimens 

 examined contained principally the remains of lish, salt and fresh water crustaceans, offal, and 

 one presented to the Trustees of the .Australian Museum in September, i8g8, by Mr J. A. 

 Pleffer, of White Rock, near Bathurst, New South Wales, was alive with intestinal worms. 



Dr. Walter L. Roth, late Northern Protector of .\boriginals. Queensland, thus refers to the 

 mode of capture of this species by the blacks : — " At that portion of a creek or waterhole in the 

 Boulia District, where the Pelican (Pdecanin coiispicilhitns) is known to frequent, the hunter will 



