ZOOLOGY. 109 



Like the pelicans of the Atlantic, those of the west are compelled to fish for the gulls, too idle 

 to supply their wants hy their own efforts, at least while they have so patient and efficient 

 friends as the pelicans, from whom they can sponge their living. At the mouth of the Columbia 

 the pelicans which I saw fishing were always attended each hy one or more small gulls, (L. 

 Belcheri.) These gulls followed the pelican in its flight, and settled at its head when it made a 

 successful plunge, snatching up any fish that might fall from its capacious gular sack. I did 

 not notice that the pelican ever displayed the least resentment of the officious attentions of these 

 little ilepredators. When, in December, we entered the bay of Panama, the brown pelicans were 

 pay'ng tribute to the black-headed gulls, the same which, according to Audubon, follow the peli- 

 cans in the Mexican Gulf. 



A large number of the individuals of P. fuscus, which I saw on the western coast, were young 

 birds in brown dress, and I was able to obtain specimens exhibiting three phases of plumage: 

 1st, ashy brown above and white below ; 2d, ashy brown above and whitish brown below ; 3d, 

 head and neck all pure white, except a slight tinge of yellow in the cheeks ; back and base of 

 neck silvery gray, feathers white at centre, ashy on their margins. Of the many thousands 

 which I saw, none exhibited the phase of plumage given by Audubon as that of the mature bird, 

 viz : neck, half dark brown and half yellowish white, the colors occupying longitudinal divisions. 

 I had Audubon's works in San Francisco, and examined the pelicans with particular reference 

 to his descriptions, and I was so confident that no such bird as his mature P. fuscus was to be 

 found in that locality, that I was disposed to regard the brown pelican of the Pacific as distinct 

 from that of the Atlantic. 



It is perhaps not generally known that the fishes on which the pelican subsists are usually of 

 very small size, large numbers of them being taken at every plunge. In the pelicans which I 

 shot about San Francisco, I found in some cases the stomach distended with a quart or more of 

 little fishes, from one to four inches in length ; and it was rare that I found any remains of large 

 individuals. 



The pelican has in its greatest development the apparatus which gives buoyancy to many 

 swimming birds. I allude to the system of sub-cutaneous air cells. In the brown pelican the 

 skin is separated from the muscles over a large part of the surface, by an interval of half an inch 

 or more, wholly occupied by a series of membranous air vessels. 



PELECANUS TPvACHYRHYNCHUS ? ? 

 The White Pelican. 



The white pelican, though generally distributed over the country west of the Rocky moun- 

 tains, is far outnumbered by the brown species. Their habitats are, however, quite distinct, and 

 they do not often come in competition in the pursuit of their aquatic food. 



The white pelican is rarely or never seen at San Francisco, at Astoria, or at any other place 

 on the coast where the brown are so abundant ; but as one leaves the coast, penetrating the 

 interior, on all the large rivers and inland lakes he will be sure to find it, though never in great 

 numbers. It seems to occupy the inland lakes and rivers quite across the continent, and is 

 evidently a fresh water bird ; while the brown species is as exclusively confined to the vicinity 

 of salt water. While encamped on Klamath lake we several times saw flying over the tule 

 marshes which border it a large white pelican, of which the wings seemed almost entirely black. 

 It might have been the present species, but appeared to be distinct. 



