PELECANID^ — THE PELICANS — PELECANUS. 139 



into market in large numbers in the spring of 1870, and sold at the low rate of seventy- 

 five cents per dozen. One egg was said to be equal to three Hen's eggs, and to be 

 quite as palatable. 



Professor Kumlien informs me that this Telican visits Lake Koskonong, in South- 

 ern Wisconsin, nearly every spring, arriving and departing in the month of April, 

 none ever remaining into May. He has never noticed any lairds of this species 

 on their return in the fall. If they pass by that route southward, their passage is 

 supposed to be by night. 



The eggs of the White Pelican have a very uneven surface, with a tendency to 

 granulations in spots, and corrugations. Their color is a uniform dull chalky white, 

 marked in some instances with conspicuous blood-stains. Specimens in the Smith- 

 sonian Institution collections (No. 13692) are of a rounded oval shape, and present 

 the following measurements : 3.40 inches by 2.30 ; 3.15 by 2.15 ; 3.05 by 2.15 ; 3.45 

 by 2.25. 



Captain Charles Bendire, who enjoyed unusual opportunities for observing the 

 breeding-habits of this species in Eastern Oregon, has furnished additional and valu- 

 able notes in regard to them. He found it a very common summer resident in that 

 region, making its appearance early in spring, before the lakes were free from ice, 

 and moving south early in November. He observed it breeding in large numbers on 

 several of the small islands in the eastern part of Malheur Lake, beginning as early 

 as April 12 ; the nest being a mere depression scraped in the sand. The number of 

 eggs in a nest was usually two, but occasionally three. In rare instances five were 

 found in the same nest ; but these were perhaps the product of more than one female. 

 The birds breed in communities, the nests being about a yard apart. Eggs of this 

 species placed under a Hen were hatched out in twenty-nine days. The eggs were all 

 of a dull chalky white color, and their average measurement — obtained from a large 

 number of examples — was found to be 3.45 inches by 2.30. The following are the 

 measurements of nine eggs selected as representing the extremes (e. r/. the largest, 

 the smallest, and the most spherical) : 3.72 inches by 2.40 ; 3.86 by 2.35 ; 3.87 by 

 2.32 ; 3.62 by 2.40 ; 3.60 by 2.40 ; 3.57 by 2.35 ; 3.17 by 2.23 ; 3.20 by 2.21 ; 3.20 by 

 2.50. The last is exceptional in shape and appearance, resembling the egg of a very 

 large Bald Eagle. 



Felecanus fuscus. 



THE BROWN PELICAN. 



Pelecamis fuscus, Linn. S. N. I. 1766, 215. — Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 476. — Aud. Orn. Biog. III. 

 1835, 376 ; V. 1839, 212 ; Synop. 1839, 212 ; B. Am. VII. 1844, 32, pis. 423, 424. — Lawr. in 

 Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 870. — Baird, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 616. — CouES, Key, 1872, 

 300 ; Check List, 1873, no. 527 ; 2d ed. 1882, no. 749. 



Leptopelicanus fuscus, Reichenb. Syst. Av. 1852, p. vii. 



Onocrotalus fuscus, Bonap. Consp. II. 1855, 163. 



Hab. Atlantic coast of tropical and subtropical America, north in' the United States to North 

 Carolina. Accidental in Illinois (C. K. Worthen ; cf. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, January, 1880, 

 p. 32). 



Sp. Char. Tail of twenty-two feathers. Malar region entirely naked : color silvery gray above 

 and dusky beneath in the adult, brown or grayish above and white beneath in the young ; bill 

 grayish ; pouch and feet dusky. Adult, infidl breeding-plumage : Head, and feathers of the neck 

 bordering the base of the gular pouch, white, the forehead sometimes tinged with straw-yellow ; 

 rest of the iK^ck rich chestnut or seal- brown, the upper part of the nape with a narrow crest of ligliter 

 reddish. Upper parts nearly uniform velvety light ash-gray, the feathers of the upper part of the 



