66 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Mus., Ornith. ser., vol. 1, 1896, p. 26 (Samana, Bay).— Christy, Ibis, 1897, p. 

 342 (Samana. Bay, common; nesting on Pelican Cays). — Yerrill, Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sei. Philadelphia, 1909, p. 355 (abundant). 



Pelecanus occidentalis, Peters, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 61, 1917, p. 396 

 (Estero Balsa, Manzanillo Bay; Margante). — Ciferri, Segund. Inf. An. Est. 

 Nac. Agr. Moca, 1927, p. 6 (listed). 



Pelecanus o. occidentalis, Beebe, Zool. Soc. Bull., vol. 30, 1927, p. 138; Be- 

 neath Tropic Seas, 1928, pp. 27, 29, 138, 218 (Sand Cay and Lamentin Reef, 

 near Port-au-Prince). 



Pelecanus occidentalis occidentalis, Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 

 vol. 80, 1928, p. 489 (Jacmel, Gonave Channel, Port-de-Paix, Gonave Island). — 

 Danforth, Auk, 1929, p. 360 (Boca Chica, San Pedro de Macoris, St. Marc, 

 Les Salines, Gonave). — Moltoni, Att. Soc. Ital. Scienz. Nat., vol. 68, 1929, p. 

 308 (Haina, specimen). 



Resident, found along coasts in fair numbers. 



The brown pelican is found along the coasts, and is widely distrib- 

 uted, being most abundant where fish abound in shallow bays. In 

 spite of its ungainly form the brown pelican dives gracefully and 

 swiftly from thirty feet or more in the air, and secures its food of 

 fish in the scoop formed by the capacious pouch dependant from 

 the lower mandibles. The fish captured are swallowed and are not 

 held in the pouch as many suppose. 



Oviedo gives a description of the brown pelican and its method 

 of feeding, and says that it was seen daily about Santo Domingo 

 City. The size and capacity of the pouch were to him matters of 

 much wonder. 



The only breeding resorts definitely known at this time in the 

 Dominican Republic are on the Pelican Keys (called also Islas de 

 los Pajaros) at the entrance to San Lorenzo Bay, and on Catalinita 

 Island. (PL 13.) Christy describes the colony first mentioned as 

 large but did not visit it personally. On May 11, 1927 Wetmore re- 

 corded only half a dozen nearly grown young in this rookery, but 

 nesting was nearly over for the year as he found numbers of young 

 on the wing on Samana Bay, near the mouths of the Barrancota 

 and Yuna Rivers, and along the beach east of Sanchez. The nests 

 observed were built in the tops of low trees on the rocky slopes of 

 the islets. Apparently the birds were more abundant in earlier 

 years as Christy mentions a gathering of 600 at the head of Samana 

 Bay after an easterly gale. Abbott secured a number of bones of 

 the pelican in caves formerly inhabited by Indians, one fourth mile 

 from the sea at San Lorenzo Bay. Peters saw a few pelicans at 

 Estero Balsa on Manzanillo Bay February 10, and one at Margante 

 March 13. Cherrie found them only in Samana Bay. September 

 10 to 12, 1919, Abbott reported about one hundred nests, about half 

 containing young, on the northern end of Catalinita Island. There 



