414 Dr. H. O. Forbes: Notes on 



whole of tlie breeding plateaux of the different islands 

 dotted thick with nests of Pelicans and Cormorants, the vast 

 majority of them still containing nestlings of different ages 

 — to the number of some millions — but all of them dead, 

 sun-baked mummies. It appeared that in the previous 

 November, almost the entire avian population of the islands 

 began suddenly, for some reason, so far not yet satisfac- 

 torily explained, to take their departure, leaving both eggs 

 and young to their fate : some to die of hunger, others 

 to be devoured, till disgust intervened upon satiety, by the 

 Vultures, the Gulls, and the Terns. By December, 1911, 

 hardlv a score of birds remained, as was the case when I 

 arrived in January, 1912 ; and none returned to nest till the 

 end of that year. What took place at the Chincha Islands, 

 occurred at almost every other breeding-station through- 

 out the length of the Republic — a coast-line of nearly 

 1000 miles. 



The Chincha and the Lobos groups contain perhaps the 

 largest pelicaneries in Peru ; but smaller colonies breed in 

 almost all the islands. As early as June the ovaries of the 

 females had begun to enlarge against the incubating season, 

 which occurs in the spring of the southern hemisphere. By 

 ■October, the pairing — which appears to be unobtrusive — has 

 been accomplished, and the assembling together of the 

 multitudinous couples in the usual nesting area on the 

 pampa of the islands is in progress. At the Chinchas I found 

 the nests of Molina's Pelican to begin as little more than 

 hollow depressions, circumvallated with dry guano and dry 

 sand, which latter the birds industriously scrape from the 

 ground wherever it can be foundj and loading it into their 

 gular pouch, carry it laboriously to the chosen spot. Such 

 feathers as can be picked up or stolen from their own kin 

 or from the Cormorants are used as a lining. Later, each 

 nest assumes much greater proportions through the uniform 

 deposit around it of fresh guano from day to day, first 

 loy the parents and afterwards by them and the young 

 conjointly. 



The birds were busy nest-building about the beginning of 



