THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 

 ORNITHOLOGY. 



Vol. xxviii. October, 1911. No. 4. 



NOTES ON PELICAN ISLAND. 



BY GEO. NELSON. 



Plates IV-VII. 



For a great many years the Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occi- 

 dentalis) of the east coast of Florida have occupied as a breeding 

 site, a small island in the Indian River near the town of Sebastian. 

 This island, popularly known as Pelican Island, is not over three 

 acres in area, and only at the sandy ridge at the eastern end is 

 it but little over two feet above the normal water level. Many 

 years ago it was well covered with mangrove trees, in which the 

 birds nested, but now only a few bleached stumps remain. 

 Formerly the nesting season started early in the winter, and was 

 terminated by the following summer, but in recent years, each 

 successive season began a little earlier, and continued somewhat 

 later than the previous one until the years 1908 to 1910 when the 

 island was occupied as a breeding site for twenty-four consecu- 

 tive months. During the last week in October, 1908, the birds 

 arrived at the island, and the general body of them started building 

 at once. Additional though smaller colonies were continuously 

 arriving until the summer of 1909, and some of the young of these 

 later colonies were still too young to leave when the main body 

 of old birds arrived in October for the new nesting season. The 

 1909 season continued in much the same manner as the previous 

 one until the third week in October, 1910, when Florida was visited 



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