THE OOLOGIST'S EXCHANGE. 



VOL. II. 



NEW YORK, NOVEMBER, 1889. 



No. 8. 



BROWN PELICAN. 

 (Pelicanus fiiscus.) 



The brown pelican is very abundant 

 on all parts of the Pacific coast which 

 I have visited. In the bay of Panama 

 they are particularly numerous. At the 

 Golden Gate and the mouth of the Col- 

 umbia their numbers are surprisingly 

 great, and their goblin figures, flitting 

 about, all head and wings, are insep- 

 arably connected with my remem- 

 brances of those localities. 



This pelican is. exclusively confined 

 to the sea coast, and is never found on 

 the inland waters. On the contrary, 

 the white pelican is almost as exclus- 

 ively confined to the interior, and to 

 bodies of fresh water. 



About San Francisco, when on or 

 near the water, one is scarcely out of 

 sight of the brown pelican ; yet I never 

 saw a white pelican while there. It was 

 only on going up into the interior that 

 I found the white species entirely re- 

 placing the brown. On San Pablo bay 

 the two species meet and mingle. 



At the Golden Gate the habits of the 

 brown pelican may be studied quite at 

 one's leisure. 



Like many other aquatic birds at 

 nightfall they seek the broad expanse 

 of the open sea, where they may float 

 in safety and sleep rocked by the gen- 

 tle swell of the ocean. Near the shore 

 they would be exposed to the attacks 

 of various foes ; the turbulence of the 

 breakers is, probably, not an invoca- 

 tive of sleep, and, strange as it may 

 seem, birds, as well as ships, unless in 

 some snug harbor, are safer in a storm 

 with a good offing. 



After passing the night at sea, in the 

 grey down of the morning the pelicans 

 begin to move, trailing in long lines 

 just above the surface of the, water, 

 toward the shore, where they find their 

 food. While on the sea, I have seen 

 as the day begins to dawn, and the 

 mist slowly to lift from the surface of 

 the water, the birds which had flown 

 seaward the evening before begin to 

 return. The long lines of uncouth and 

 jrhostly pelicans, dimly seen through 

 the fog, slowly flapping their huge bat- 

 like wings in funereal rank and silence 



losing themselves again in the fog. 

 formed a vision peculiarly spectral and 

 unreal. 



The habits of the brown pelicans of 

 the Pacific coast agree closely with 

 those of the Gulf of Mexico. Their 

 mode of fishing is the same. 



When flying along, perhaps twenty 

 feet above the water, from time to 

 time, with a spiral gyration, they 

 plunge, sometimes quite beneath the 

 surface of the water, after their finny 

 food, and almost invariably with suc- 

 cess. 



It is perhaps not generally known 

 that the fishes on which the pelican 

 subsists are usually of very small size, 

 large numbers of them being taken at 

 every plunge. In the pelicans which I 

 shot about San Francisco, I found in 

 some cases the .stomach distended with 

 a quart or more of little fishes, from 

 one to four inches in length ; and it was 

 rare that I found any remains of large 

 individuals. 



Like the pelicans of the Atlantic, 

 those of the west are compelled to fish 

 for the gulls, too idle to supply their 

 wants by their own efforts, at least 

 while they have so patient and efficient 

 friends as the pelicans, from whom 

 they can sponge their living. 



At the mouth of the Columbia, the 

 pelicans which I saw fishing were al- 

 ways attended by one or more small 

 gulls, (E. Belcheri.) 



These gulls followed the pelicans in 

 their flight, and, after one had made a 

 successful plunge, would settle at its 

 head and snatch up any fish that might 

 fall from its capacious gular sack. I 

 did not notice that the pelican ever 

 displayed the least resentment at the 

 officious attentions of these little de- 

 predators. When, in December, we 

 entered the bay of Panama, the brown 

 pelicans were paying tribute to the 

 black-headed gulls, the same which, 

 according to Audubon, follow the pel- 

 icans in tlie Mexican Gulf. 



A large number of the individuals of 

 P.fuscus, which 1 saw on the western 

 coast, were young birds in brown 

 dress, and I was able to obtain speci- 

 mens exhibiting three phases of plum- 

 age: 1st, ashy brown above and white 

 below ; 2d, ashy brown above and 

 whitish brown below; 3d, head and 

 neck all pure white, except a slight 

 tinge of yellow in the cheeks; back 

 and base of neck silvery gray, feathers 



