62 
come of a study of the food of these birds in the neighbourhood of the 
Gaspe salmon rivers.!. Though commonly accused of damaging the salmon 
fisheries by devouring the small fish and fry, careful examination of about 
thirty specimens showed that the hundreds of birds present were eating 
fish of no economic value and no salmonoid remains were found in them. 
Probably the eels, sculpins, and other fish taken by the Cormorant make 
the species beneficial rather than harmful to the salmon, and probably 
more than compensate for the few valuable fish that it occasionally takes. 
This is a good example of the caution that is necessary before condemning 
any species of birds. 
FAMILY—PELECANIDA. PELICANS. 
General Description. Large bird with a very long, flattened bill and enormous throat 
or gular pouch. 
Distinctions. The enormous throat pouch, holding a gallon or more, and the long 
flattened bill are always diagnostic. 
These extraordinary birds are of too rare occurrence in eastern Canada 
to be specifically dealt with here. There are two species that have been 
occasionally taken, the White Pelican, Pelecanus erythrorhynchos a western 
form, that may be looked for towards the Manitoba boundary and westward, 
but in the east only as stragglers; the Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, 
a southern bird of only accidental occurrence in Canada. The descriptive 
names are sufficiently explanatory to differentiate them. The White 
Pelican is practically pure white with black wing tip in all plumages; any 
other pronounced colours are indications of other species. 
Order—Anseres. Sieve-billed Swimmers. Lamellirostral Swimmers. 
General Description. Swimming birds with four toes and two webs, having bills with 
a hooked or flat nail at the tip and furnished with tooth-like projections or thin laminz 
on ne sides (Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, p. 19) through which they strain the water from their 
food. 
Distinctions. As above. 
Field Marks. The outstreched neck, obvious tail, and rapid wing beats of the ducks 
and geese are familar to most of us. In the water some species bear superficial resemblance 
to the divers, but the straight, narrow, unduck-like bills of the latter, the obvious tails of 
the ducks and their general readiness to fly instead of diving when disturbed should make 
differentiation easy. 
Nesting. Usually on ground, sometimes in hollow trees, and rarely in deserted crow’s 
and other large nests, but seldom far from water. The young are able to run about and 
take to water as soon as hatched, but how they are brought to the ground from a tree 
nest some 20 or 30 feet in the air is a subject upon which a considerable difference of opinion 
exists. 
Distribution. The Anseres are of world-wide distribution. In America the great 
majority of the species breed north of the International Boundary. They can, therefore, 
be regarded as birds of northern distribution. In winter some few remain in Canada as 
long as there is open water and others journey south, even to the warm waters of the Caro- 
linas, the gulf of Mexico or beyond. 
The order Anseres contains but one family—Anatide composed of the 
Mergansers, Ducks, Geese, and Swans, and comprises, therefore, the great 
bulk of the larger wild fowl pursued by sportsmen. One of the greatest 
sources of confusion in distinguishing the various species is the occurrence 
1“The Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, and its relation to salmon industries on the gulf of 
St. Lawrence’, Dept. of Mines, Geol. Surv., Can., Mus. Bull. No. 13, Biological Series No. 5, 1915. 
