190 Ferry, Summer Birds of Saskatchewan. [April 



hatched, and others with yoving a few days old. This colony, however, 

 was insignificant when compared with one we found on July 9, about one 

 and a half miles from the former. It was on an island chosen by the White 

 Pelicans for their breeding ground. Here were between 200 and 300 

 young cormorants in the down averaging about one third grown; though 

 there were some young but a few days old, and others about one-half 

 grown. Some nests contained highly incubated and addled eggs. The 

 nests were scattered about on the island in groups, numbering from twelve 

 to thirty-five or forty nests. The young when able to hobble away from 

 their own nests would gather in little companies nearby. A neighboring 

 nest was usually occupied by as many birds as it would hold, the others 

 huddling together around it. The young birds uttered a note like a crying 

 baby, but shriller and harsher. They showed no fear of man, and while 

 one observer was preparing his camera, one young bird pecked at his coat 

 sleeve, mistaking the man for his parent. The young appeared to be fed 

 upon minnows, which they would sometimes disgorge in a semi-digested 

 state when alarmed. The parent birds left long before our canoe reached 

 the island and did not return. Occasionally, however, solitary birds would 

 fly by overhead. The nests of the cormorants were made of sticks and 

 dry weed stalks, woven together with varying degrees of skill; sometimes 

 the nest was almost as well built as that of a Red-tailed Hawk; at others 

 it had fallen apart before the eggs were hatched. 



The adult birds were not often seen in the fully adult plumage. Usually 

 there was a considerable intermixing of white. None of the adults shot 

 had the long crests behind each eye. 



10. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos. White Pelican. — The most notable 

 discovery of our trip was a nesting colony of this species. From our 

 arrival we had hunted continually for the birds' breeding grounds, for they 

 were abundant about the lakes. The nesting site was at last found, 

 July 10, on an island at the extreme southern end of the lake. As we 

 approached the island from a distance, an impressive sight was presented 

 to us. A great bank of snow seemed to be looming above the water. 

 When we were about five hundred yards distant, the birds began to take 

 wing, executing that stately flight for which they are noted. Soon the 

 space above the island was filled with several hundred great white birds, 

 while in every direction small flocks were flying away in single file. This was 

 a striking enough spectacle, but a still more interesting sight was the hun- 

 dreds of white downy young that gathered together in several great herds 

 about the island. Sprinkled among them were little groups of young 

 cormorants. When the young pelicans were approached they uttered a 

 groaning, grunting noise and herded together in the most ludicrous con- 

 fusion. Scrambling and stumbling, they slowly moved away from the 

 intruder, bearing all before them — patches of rank weeds, cormorant 

 nests and the helpless young of both pelicans and cormorants. Some- 

 times they disgorged the contents of their pouches, usually a mass of 

 salamanders (Necturus maculatus), though occasionally a "jock-fish" 



