12 Contributions from the Charleston Museum. 



31. Phalacrocorax auritus floridanus (Aud.). Florida 



Cormorant. 



This subspecies breeds, but I have yet to find its breeding 

 ground on this coast. The birds do not breed on the coast islands, 

 and I doubt if they breed near salt water, as few, if any, are to be 

 seen during June and July. They are exceedingly abundant, 

 and the stakes marking the channels in the various creeks are 

 resorted to by these birds as favorite roosting places. 



FAMILY PELECANIDiE : PELICANS. 



32. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmel. White Pelican. 



1 have never seen this fine species alive on our coast. Dr. 

 John Baehman procured it, however, and I quote his experi- 

 ence as related by Audubon: 1 



This bird is now more rare on our coast than it was thirty years ago; for I 

 have heard it stated that it formerly bred on the sand banks of our Bird Islands. 

 I saw a flock on the Bird Banks off Bull's Island, on the 1st day of July, 1814, 

 when I procured two full plumaged old birds, and was under the impression that 

 they had laid eggs on one of those banks, but the latter had the day previous to 

 my visit been overflowed by a spring tide, accompanied with heavy wind. 



Mr. Edward Magwood told me that he had seen four White Peli- 

 cans in Bull's Island Narrows in the early part of March, 1902. 

 These birds, however, may have been albinos of the Brown Pel- 

 ican (P. occidentalis). 



33. Pelecanus occidentalis (Linn.). Brown Pelican. 



The Brown Pelican is a summer resident, 2 which breeds — or 

 tries to — on Bird Bank, Cape Romain, Sandy Point, and perhaps 

 another spot in the Bull's Bay region. 



As far as I am aware, the only other breeding ground on this 

 coast is St. Helena Sound, where fresh eggs were taken by Mr. 

 Chester S. Day of Boston, on May 8, 1904. 



Bull's Bay, which extends from the eastern end of Bull's Island 

 to Cape Romain, has a few banks which are generally out of reach 

 of high tides (except the spring tides), and it is to these banks 

 that the Pelicans annually resort to breed. The breeding season 

 is much later in Bull's Bay than in St. Helena Sound, the earliest 

 date upon which fresh eggs have been taken at the former locality 

 being May 23, 1901. The Pelicans seldom raise a brood, the eggs 



» Birda of America, VII, 22. 



2 The earliest record of the Museum for this species is March 24, 1907, when a specimen 

 was taken at Drayton Station on the Ashley River. This capture was recorded in the 

 Bulletin of the Charleston Museum, III, 1907, 30, and the skin is preserved in the Mu- 

 seum (Spec. No. 954).— Ed. 



