THE WHITE PELICAN 371 



of Winnipeg, being their known eastern outpost. In many 

 of the numberless lakes of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, an:l Al- 

 berta, invariably upon islands, White Pelicans nest; a col- 

 ony containing anywhere from a dozen to several thousand 

 birds. 



While early writers tell us that the White Pelican was at 

 one time more or less frequently seen in our North Atlantic 

 States, there is no record of its ever having nested east of 

 the Mississippi. In western Minnesota, Pelicans nested as 

 recently as 1878, and they doubtless also reared their young 

 at favorable localities in the northern plains states, but the 

 most eastern colony breeding in the United States to-day, is 

 found in Yellowstone Park . West of the Rockies, in the 

 Great Basin, there are Pelican settlements on islands in 

 Utah Lake, Utah ; and in Washoe and Pyramid Lakes, Ne- 

 vada, while a great number nest in Lower Klamath Lake on 

 the California-Oregon line and probably also on other lakes 

 of eastern Oregon. 



In California, they make their home in Eagle Lake in the 

 northern Sierras, and, until it was drained in 1904, they 

 nested on Kern Lake at the southern end of the San Joaquin 

 Valley, and I am told that the year after its formation, a 

 company of these birds took possession of an island in the 

 Salton Sea. These birds, therefore, have not only establish- 

 ed the most southern breeding record of their species, but 

 they have also established a record of intelligence in the de- 

 liberate selection of the only type of home in which it is pos- 

 sible for Pelicans to rear their young. 



Conspicuous because of their size, color and gregarious- 

 ness, adult Pelicans would be a shining mark for the preda- 

 ceous animals of the mainland, while the fact that the young 

 Pelican cannot fly until he is at least two months old, indi- 

 cates how little chance he would have of reaching this age 

 should his parents select a mainland home. The security af- 

 forded by an island is therefore as essential to the 

 continued existence of the Pelican as it is to other 



