586 Report of State Geologist. 



their former abundance at St. Mary's Reservoir, in Ohio, which is 

 probably not over twelve miles east of the Indiana line: ''On the south 

 side of the Reservoir, .about seven miles from Celina, was the 'Water 

 Turkey' Rookery. Here I used to shoot them, with the natives, who 

 wanted them for their feathers; I have helped kill a boat-load. 



"One season I climbed up to their nests and got a cap full of eggs. 

 The nests were made of sticks and built in the forks of the branches. 

 The trees (which were all dead) were mostly oaks, and covered with 

 excrement. I found from two to four eggs or young to a nest. The 

 young were queer little creatures — looked and felt like India rubber. 

 The old birds flew around in clouds, and made their croaking notes, 

 indicative of their displeasure at my presence. Some oi the trees had 

 ten or twelve nests in them. As the timber has rotted and blown 

 down, the birds have become less and less numerous. 



"The above circumstances occurred during the month of June, 1867, 

 since when, as Mr. Dury states, these birds have rapidly decreased in 

 numbers. The many specimens examined by him were, without ex- 

 ception, var. fiorida'nus." 



Dr. Langdon found a single specimen floating on the Reservoir in 

 October, 1874. 



VIII. Family PELECANID^:. Pelicans. 



Characters same ;is family. Pelecancs. 11 



11. Grsus PELECANUS Lixn.cts. 



a'. Tail featiiers24; lower jaw densely feathered. Subgenus CyrtopcUcaniti^. Reich. 

 b^. Color, white. P. erythrorhynchos (imel. 23 



23. (1-5) Pelecanus erythrorhynchos MIL. 



American White Pelican. 



"White; occiput and breast, yellow; primaries, their coverts, bastard 

 quills and many secondaries, black; bill, sac, lores and feet, yellow.'^ 

 (Wheaton.) 



Length, 53.50-64.00; wing, 22.25-25.25; bill, 11.30-15.00. 



Range. — North America, from Guatemala to latitude 61 degrees 

 north in the interior. Rare on the Atlantic coast. Breeds, locally, 

 from Great Salt Lake, Utah, northward. 



Nest, a mound of earth with a depression in the top. Eggs. 2-4; 

 dull chalky-white; 3.45 by 2.30. 



Rare migrant. Almost every year one or more are noted from some 

 place in the State, yet few are the persons who ever saw one alive. Dr. 

 Rufus Raymond reported it from Franklin County. Mr. R J. Chans- 

 ler writes me of the occurrence of these birds in large numbers in 

 Knox County in 1850. One Avas killed near Swan Pond in the spring 



