LIFE HISTORIES OF NOKTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 291 



notes heard on their breeding grounds and not audible at any great 

 distance. Doctor Chapman (1908) refers to this note as " a deep 

 voiced, not loud, murmuring groan," and Doctor Grinnell (1908) 

 calls it "a grunting quack." Audubon (1840) likens it to a sound 

 " produced by blowing through the bunghole of a cask." 

 Dr. P. L. Hatch (1892) says: 



This immense bird usually signals his arrival in the early part of April 

 by his characteristic notes from an elevation beyond the range of vision ex- 

 cept under the most favorable circumstances. The sound of those notes is 

 difficult to describe, but unforgetable when once certainly heard from their 

 aerial heights. I have sometimes scanned the heavens in vain to see them, 

 but am generally rewarded for my vigilance and patience if the sky is clear, 

 and if cloudy, also, when I watch the rifts closely with my field glass. 



This seems to be a loud note, which I have never heard or seen 

 described elsewhere. Doctor Chapman (1908) describes the note 

 of the young bird as " a low, coughing whining grunt," a chorus 

 of such cries from a large colony creates quite a volume of sound. 



In spite of its great size and superior strength the white pelican 

 is a gentle bird of mild disposition ; like most giants it is good nat- 

 ured. It is easily tamed and makes an interesting and devoted pet 

 in confinement; in fact no confinement is necessary if raised by 

 hand in captivity. It never makes any trouble for its neighbors 

 on its breeding grounds, where it is often intimately associated with 

 cormorants and gulls. Aside from the damage done to eggs and 

 young pelicans by gulls, it seems to have no enemies. Its habits 

 of nesting on islands, probably developed by natural selection, saves 

 it from certain extermination by predatory animals. It has not 

 suffered materially from hunting for the millinery trade, although 

 at one time a few skins were sold in the New York market ; the de- 

 mand did not seem to warrant the risk involved. 



Winter. — From its breeding grounds in the fresh water lakes of 

 the interior, the white pelican migrates southward in the fall through 

 the interior valleys of our large rivers, lingering to feed or rest on 

 the way and finally spreads out both east and west to spend the 

 winter along our warmer sea coasts. Along the south Atlantic and 

 Gulf coasts, it is fairly common all winter; many individuals re- 

 main until late in the spring and some stay all summer on the coasts 

 of the Gulf of Mexico. It has been said to breed on the coast of 

 South Carolina and Florida in the past and Capt. W. M. Sprinkle 

 told me that it had bred recently on some islands near the mouth 

 of the Mississippi Eiver; it is undoubtedly common on the coast at 

 times in summer, but birds seen there at that season are probably 

 nonbreeding birds which have lingered in their winter resorts.^ 

 In its winter home it is associated with the brown pelican, frequent- 



' A breeding colony has recently been discovered near Corpus Christl, Texas. 



