380 THE WHITE PELICAN 



Klamath Lake, in southeastern Oregon, on the California 

 line. Here their island homes are made by matted rafts of 

 of tule reeds, often acres in extent. The eggs are laid on 

 the thick beds of fallen reeds with little or no attempt at 

 nest-building. The immediate surroundings differ radi- 

 cally from those which prevail on Anahao Island, but the 

 prime essentials of insulation and fish being present, other 

 details are of minor importance. 



The Government Reclamation Service has condemned 

 this lake, not because its waters are required, but because 

 they are useless or, from a strictly utilitarian view, worse 

 than useless. When the project, now being developed, is 

 completed, they will have disappeared down the Klamath 

 River and 260,000 acres of tillable land will have taken their 

 place. The reed islands will strand in the mud, the tules 

 will wither and alfalfa flourish in their place, the birds, like 

 other indigenes, will find that the Government Land Office 

 does not recognize a claim to ownership based only on 

 priority of occupation, and, with their relatives of Pyramid 

 Lake, they must search for a new country. Doubtless for a 

 time, the peculiar conditions they require, will be available, 

 but later they will surely be forced to migrate again, and 

 eventually they will doubtless have to pay the penalty of all 

 forms of life which cannot exist in contact with man. 



The passing of so distinguished a bird occasions a regret 

 only slightly tempered by the knowledge that the haunts 

 from which they have been driven will, in due season, 

 become the home of those smaller, more adaptable species 

 to which civilization means an increasing abundance of food 

 and a decreasing number of enemies. 



Fifteen different groups of Pelicans, each containing 

 from a score to several hundred birds, were found nesting 

 on the rush islands of Klamath Lake. The tules growing 

 about the borders of the matted open spaces they occupied, 

 afforded concealment for my blind and from it I finally saw 

 something of the Pelicans home-life at comparatively short 



