NOVA SCOTIAN ZOOLOGY — PIERS. 399 



Brown Pelican ( Pelecanus fuscus). On 31st May, 1885, a 

 Brown Pelican was seen to alight on a salt-water marsh at River 

 John, Pictou, N. S., where it was approached without much diffi- 

 culty and killed. Upon examination the body was found to be 

 emaciated and the pouch entirely empty. The skin was mounted, 

 and is now in the museum of Pictou Academy. It is in full 

 nuptual plumage, and has a greenish black pouch. The latter 

 was at first slightly shaded with green and blue, but it soon 

 afterwards turned to its present colour. Mr. James McKinlay 

 writes me that on 1st June, 1893, an adult male of the same 

 species was shot on Pictou Island by Mr. J. Hogg, the lighthouse 

 keeper. It was slightly larger than the first specimen, from 

 which it did not differ materially either in form or colour. 

 From tip of bill to end of tail, it measured 4 feet 7 inches ; 

 bill, 12|^ inches; tarsus, 3j inches. No food whatever was 

 found in the stomach, and its flesh was in poor condition. 

 It probably will be also placed in the Academy museum. 

 On 19th August, 1889, my brothers, while on the shore 

 of Bedford Basin, saw a bird which was probably a Pelican. 

 They described its general colour as grayish, and it had a pouch 

 beneath the bill. When observed, it was flying from the north- 

 east to the south-west. The species must only be regarded as an 

 accidental visitor. It is not mentioned at all in Mr. Chamber- 

 lain's Cdtdloffue of Canadian Birds, the most recent general 

 work upon the subject. Its habitat is the coasts and islands of 

 the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, including the West 

 Indies ; north, regularly, to North Carolina, accidentally (blown 

 bj^ storm ?J to Illinois ( Ridgwayj. I may as well mention that 

 Mr. Chamberlain, speaking of another species, the American 

 White Pelican (P. erythrorhynchos), ^aysth^t "one specimen has 

 been taken in Nova Scotia and two in New Brunswick." I know 

 nothing of the Nova Scotian specimen referred to. 



Redhead (Aythya amsricana). This is a rare migrant in 

 Nova Scotia, but it is common from Montreal to W^estern Mani- 

 toba, and Mr. Mcllwraith (Birds of Ontario) reports it as one of 

 the most abundant species which visit Lake Ontario. Mr. Harry 



