'^°'mr^"'] XoRTox, Notes an some Maine Birch. 3/9 



Pelecanus occidentalis. Brown Pelican.— In 1901 Homer R. Dill 

 reported " A Brown Pelican " i (italics mine) captured alive at Bar 

 Harbor in the Autumn of 1900. 



Dill's photograph which appears as a cover design of the same numl^er 

 of the journal, is all that can be desired in showing the gular pouch extend- 

 ing about half way down the neck, and the lower jaw entirely bare. 



This paper was followed by a statement that the bird "Was originally 



brought from South America on board a ship and escaped from Castine." ^ 



The matter rested there until 1908 ^ when Knight said, "The Brown 



Pelican recorded by Dill in J. M. O. S. proves on investigation not to be a 



Brown Pelican at all. 



It is a South American species of Pelican being one of three kept as pets 

 by a resident of Castine. As such it has no right to be called a bird of 

 Maine." 



He further says under the caption Pelicanus occidentalis " neither is it 

 entitled to the name there given to it." ^ 



The only name used by Dill was " Brown Pelican " ! 

 The bird was mounted, and is in the state museum at Augusta, where 

 the curator, Mr. Thomas A. Jame.s, gave me opportunity to examine it, 

 though we had no specimens for comparison. The primaries had been 

 clipped near the tips giving support to the theory of its confinement, 

 though rendering the wing measurement useless. The culmen measures 

 275 mm. (about 10.84 inches). The coloring is, above obscm-e brownish, 

 below dirty whitish, the pouch showing no trace of reddish, the neck plain 

 brownish. 



The bird is evidently immature. If not of the present species, it must 

 belong to an unknown one, as it is well within the dimensions of P. occi- 

 dentalis, and below those of P. californicus, or P. nwlinoi, the only others 

 known from South America, nor does it agree with either of the other 

 eight pelicans characterized by Dubois.'^ 



[After the above was written an article has appeared in ' Bird-Lore ' ^ 

 by Mr. John B. May, with a photograph of two Brown Pelicans taken at 

 Castine. The birds, he states, were brought from Florida and released. 

 Ed.] 



Chaulelasmus streperus. Gadwall.— So far the Gadwall has 

 proved to be one of the rarest Ducks known to visit Maine. 



Mr. N. C. Brown, recorded two taken at Scarborough, April 29, 1879.^ 

 The late Alpheus G. Rogers » of Portland wrote in his shooting journal 



1 1901. Dill, Journ. Me. Orn. Soc, III: 15. 



^ 1901. [Swain], ibid., p. 18. 



3 1908. Knight, Birds of Maine, 76, footnote. 



* 1908. Knight, Birds of Maine, 647-648. 



6 1907. Dubois, Genera Avium, pt. 7. 



« Bird-Lore, July-August, 1916, p. 247. 



' 1882. Brown, Abstr. Proc. Portland Soc. N. H., II., 2. 



8 1903. Rogers, Third Shooting Journal. 



