KLAMATH LAKE BIRD-LIFE 



KLAMATH LAKE is situated in northeastern California on the 

 Oregon boundary-line. Its shallow water permits a great growth 

 of tules, or rushes, which almost completely fringe the shore, 

 in places expanding to a width of several miles. They also form islands 

 varying in size from a few square yards to many acres in ext-ent. It is 

 on these islands that the bird colonies are established. There is no 

 soil or beach, and all the birds nest on the beds of matted tulc%, usually 

 at the border of the island. The White Pelicans, therefore, find here no 

 pebbles with which to construct their usual mound-like nests; the Cas- 

 pian Terns do without sand, and the Cormorants without rocks. Far 

 more important than these is the protection which ground-nesting com- 

 munal birds require, and this the islands supply. 



Fifteen colonies of White Pelicans were counted in this locality 

 between June 30 and July 7, 1906, and doubtless there were others, 

 since only a part of the bird-inhabited region was examined. There 

 were also great numbers of California and Ring-billed Gulls, Caspian 

 Terns and Farallon Cormorants, while Great Blue Herons, in default 

 of trees, built platform nests of tules among the growing tules. White 

 Pelicans feed while swimming, and were here devouring diseased fish 

 which were floating in the water in large numbers, while Bro^vn 

 Pelicans capture their prey by diving; but the young of both species 

 make their first attempts at fishing down the parental pouch, as a com- 

 parison of this group with the one of the BrowTi Pelican on the opposite 

 side of the hall \vill show. The White Pelican weighs six-teen pounds, 

 twice as much as the Brown Pehean. Its wing ex]3anse is between eight 

 and nine feet and, when in the air, it is one of the most impressive of 



birds. 



Only one colony of the Caspian Tern — the largest, as it is one of the 

 rarest members of its family — was observed, and this has since l)een 

 extirpated, for none was seen in 19L5. The same fate also seems to 

 have overtaken the Ring-billed Gulls in spite of the fact that this lake is 

 now a Government reservation. 



The group represents the border of a tule island, while the back- 

 ground shows other bird-inhabited islets, the surrounding treeless hills, 

 and Mount Shasta in the distance. 



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