360 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
THE PELICAN. 
The second bird in importance is the ‘“‘alcatraz,” or pelican (Pelecanus 
thagus Molina), although it has not now nearly the rank of the cormorant. 
The pelican is not only far less abundant, but it appears that its guano is dis- 
tinctly less in quantity and inferior in value to that of the cormorant. It can 
not be said in what degree this is due to an inherent difference in the birds, or to 
the fact that the cormorant breeds chiefly on the islands of the south, where the 
conditions are better for the preservation of the guano, while the pelican now 
breeds chiefly in the north where the atmosphere is more humid, and therefore 
deleterious in its effects on the deposits of guano. 
There is one thing of especial importance for consideration in regard to 
this bird. The pelican, of all the useful birds, is the one which seems to be 
most affected by the disturbances incident to the extraction of guano, and there- 
fore, of the three chief commercial birds, it is the one which has been most reduced 
in numbers. This may offer a reasonable basis of hope for the future. It does 
not appear that the breeding territory of the pelican was always confined as now 
to the northern regions. The islands of the south are smaller, so that the work- 
ing of the islands is more directly disturbing to the birds. It is natural, there- 
fore, that the rookeries of pelicans in this region should now be small and con- 
fined to the outlying and less accessible rocks. In the north, on the other 
hand, the islands of Lobos de Tierra and Lobos de Afuera are comparatively 
large, giving more opportunity to the birds to separate themselves from the 
guano workers. During recent years, too, the extraction in the north has usu- 
ally been restricted to one group of islands, while the other was left to the undis- 
turbed possession of the breeding birds. It is unfortunate that during the 
past two years both islands have been worked, with results which can not but 
be seriously injurious to the welfare of the pelicans. 
In March, 1907, large pelican rookeries, with eggs and all stages of young, 
were observed to the eastward of the Lobos de Afuera islands and an islet just 
off the north end of this island. During the following winter, about August 
probably, the birds were entirely routed from these islands, and the rookeries 
were swept clean of guano. A new home was established on the westward 
island, where the photograph (fig. 11, pl. xvi1) was taken in December, in the 
early part of the laying season. Not a single bird remained to make its nest 
on the islet, and only a few very small and scattered rookeries were found on the 
entire eastward island. 
In March, 1907, there were probably about 80,000 flying birds (mature and 
immature pelicans, not counting the nestlings of every stage) using the Lobos 
de Afuera islands at night. In December, 1907, there were between 20,000 and 
40,000 nesting birds on the same islands. The irregular nature of the rookeries 
