so NOTES ON THE 



Family PELECAKID^. 



PELEtJANUS ERYTHRORHYNCHIJS Gmelin. (125.) 



AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 



This immense bird usually signals his arrival in the early- 

 part of April by his characteristic notes from an elevation 

 beyond the range of vision except under the most favorable 

 circumstances. The sound of those notes is difficult to de- 

 scribe, but unforgetable when once certainly heard from their 

 aerial heights. I have sometimes scanned the heavens in vain 

 to see them, but am generally rewarded for my vigilance and 

 patience if the sky is clear, and if cloudy, also, when I watch 

 the rifts closely with my field glass. 



They more commonly are in flocks of from thirty to fifty, 

 rarely more; but when materially less than the former number, 

 the flock has been divided, and they then fly lower. During 

 the incoming migration of the spring of 1864 it was not an 

 unusual thing to have them descend nearly to the tops of the 

 trees, long before reaching a section for alighting. I secured 

 one at that time which was eleven feet in extent and weighed 

 twenty-two pounds. For more than twenty years after I 

 came here to reside they bred in Grant county in a large 

 community. Several of my ornithological friends visited the 

 place from time to time, first of which Mr. J. N. Sandford of 

 Elbow lake, who guided Mr, G. B. Sennett of Meadville, Pa., 

 to the pelicanery subsequently, but after several years' antici- 

 pation of seeing it with Mr. Sanford myself, professional 

 duties and ill health prevented, until, persecuted, robbed and 

 mercilessly slaughtered, they finally deserted their ancient 

 dwelling place, since which I have had no reliable evidence 

 that they bred within our borders. It is persistently claimed 

 by duck-hunters that they have renewed their limited breeding, 

 but exactly where, rumor has not decided. I think that there 

 is little reason to doubt that the pelicanery alluded to was the 

 only one within our borders, for wherever these easily identi- 

 fied birds were observed during the period of breeding in the 

 early morning and late in the day, the line of general flight 

 pointed to that same locality. Shortly after their arrival in 

 spring they pair for breeding, after which little is seen of 

 them until late in the autumn, when they begin to flock for 

 their late migration, which time depends entirely upon the 



