36 



THE CONDOR 



Vot. IX 



one dropped and came up with fish, he was surrounded b_\' a bunch of gulls, 

 each scrambling to get a nose in the pelican's big fish bag. 



The summer of 1895, we had a chance to make an intimate study of the white 

 pelican in its home on the lakes of southern Oregon. I have never seen this bird 

 plunge for its fish as the brown pelican does, but those we watched always swam 

 along and with a swift motion scooped up the fish here and there from the surface. 

 The birds were so plentiful about Tule I^ake that we were anxious to find where 

 they were nesting. 



We set out across Tule Lake for the peninsula which was fifteen miles distant. 

 Our fourteen-foot boat was well loaded, but a good wind to the rear helped us 

 along. The further we went, the stiffer the wind grew. At first we used our big 

 wagon-umbrella as a sail. I .stood in the bow and held it, and we plowed along. 



AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS AND EARALEONE CORMORANTS NESTING 



TOGETHER ON ISLET AT SOUTH END OF TULE LAKE, ON 



THE CALIFORNIA .\ND OREGON BOUNDARY LINE 



but at times the wind came in puffs, and once or twice our sail was almost demol- 

 ished and I nearly landed in the water. The boat began to ship water and we both 

 had to exert our best energy at the oars as the wind veered. Not till dusk did we 

 reach the rockj'- shore of the peninsula, only to find that the treacherous point 

 forbade a landing. Later we found a small sandy beach where we waded ashore 

 and made a rough camp for the night. 



This peninsula, upon which we found the crater of an extinct volcano, ex- 

 tended out from the east shore. The neck at the narrowest point was only fifty 

 feet wide and across this we dragged our boat and set out for the lower end of 

 the lake. 



We paddled up the inlet for two miles and came to a rocky island containing a 

 colonv of Farallone cormorants. Here on the rocks, in a space of twenty-five by 



