196 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMBRA 
from the vicinity of their nests; or, by frightening 
the brooding birds, they expose the newly hatched 
and naked nestlings to the roasting rays of the sun. 
The harm caused by these visitors, however, is not 
to be compared to that wrought by so-called 
“sportsmen,” who, in defiance of every law of man- 
hood, have gone to Pelican Island and killed thou- 
sands of the birds simply because they afforded a 
ready mark for their guns. They had not even the 
excuse of a demand upon their skill, and must 
indeed have been very near the level of the brute 
to have found pleasure in killing birds which the 
merest novice with a gun would find it difficult to 
miss. 
Perhaps even worse than this exhibition of pure 
savagery are the raids of the self-styled “ odlogists,” 
who, in the name of science—save the mark !—have 
journeyed to Pelican Island with the express pur- 
pose of taking every egg they could lay their insa- 
tiable fingers upon, afterward to boast, in some 
journal devoted to reporting similar crimes, of the 
hundreds they had collected in so many hours. 
So persistently have the Pelicans been molested 
that at times they have been forced to desert their 
beloved island; but they have exhibited their at- 
tachment for it by establishing themselves on the 
nearest available islet, and on the first opportunity 
have returned to their native land. 
It was in March, 1898, that my best assistant and 
I boarded the little sloop which was to take us to 
Pelican Island. Fortunately the birds were now in 
possession of their ancestral domain, and, as we 
approached, files of Pelicans were seen returning 
