284 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



cormorants ; there were ten nests of the pelicans -with two eggs each, 

 and four with only one each, surrounded by a thickly populated 

 colony of California and ring-billed gulls. The pelicans' nests were 

 made of sticks and feathers. Doctor Chapman visited this island on 

 June 10, 1907, and found a great colony of 3,000 pelicans nesting 

 there ; the young were just appearing at that date, showing that they 

 were unusually late in nesting the previous season. 



Nesting. — The first breeding colonies of white pelicans that I 

 found were in Lake Winnipegosis, Manitoba, where they were nesting 

 on small islands with double-crested cormorants, ring-billed gulls, 

 and common terns. The largest of these was ■ examined on June 

 19, 1913. 



A long white reef was seen in the distance, which, as we drew 

 near, seemed to be covered with birds; the mass of loose boulders 

 which formed its foundation, and was prolonged into a point at one 

 end, was black with nesting cormorants ; a fine stony or pebbly beach 

 formed a point at the other end, over which a cloud of screaming 

 terns were hovering, and in the center, where the soil had accumu- 

 lated to a considerable height, we could see the great, white solemn 

 forms of numerous pelicans sitting on their nests, or standing beside 

 them. While making a landing in our canoe the scene suddenly 

 changed to one of action, as the cormorants began pouring off their 

 nests and out over the water, and the pelicans rose with one accord ; 

 not a single bird was left on the island, but the whole great regiment 

 formed in one vast flock and circled around the island again and 

 again in a dense, black cloud, with nearly a hundred of the great 

 white birds in the center ; it was a magnificent sight not soon to be 

 forgotten. They swung close over our heads several times within 

 easy gunshot, and my boatman could not resist the temptation to send 

 two of the large, beautiful creatures tumbling into the water with 

 a mighty splash. Although ungainly in form and massive in size, 

 weighing from 15 to 20 pounds and stretching from 8 to 10 feet in 

 alar expanse, the white pelican is really a glorious bird, the spotless 

 purity of its snow-white plumage offset by its glossy black wing 

 feathers and enriched by its deep orange bill and feet. 



On landing we found that the common terns were nesting in a 

 densely populated colony of from 500 to 800 pairs on the gravelly 

 beach at the eastern end, and the double-crested cormorants, about 

 300 or 400 pairs of them, were occupying the bare ground and the 

 rocky point at the western end. On the. high bare ground in the 

 center we counted 46 nests of white pelicans, mere depressions in the 

 bare earth, with usually a more or less complete rim of dirt and rub- 

 bish raised around the eggs. The usual number of eggs was two, but 

 three or four nests contained three eggs each and one held six, prob- 



