LIFE HISTORIES OF NOETH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS, 297 



a funeral than the joyous display attending most nuptials. Neither uttered 

 an audible sound while the male pursued his dignified circuitous meandering. 

 Suddenly she rose from her squatting position with a gruff-gruff of wing- 

 strokes and flew to the ocean, but a short distance from the shore, and after 

 stolidly watching her going, he followed, still wearing his mask-like expres- 

 sion of weighty solemnity, to the consummation of the courtship on the surface 

 of the quiet swelling waters of the gulf. 



Eggs. — The brown pelican normally lays three eggs, though two 

 eggs often constitute a full set ; I have found four and on one occasion 

 five eggs in a nest, though in the latter case the eggs were apparently 

 laid by two different birds. The eggs are dull, lusterless, dirty white, 

 usually more or less nest stained, and with a rough granular surface. 

 The measurements of 46 eggs in the United States National Museum 

 average 73 by 46.5 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 83 by 49, 81.5 by 54, 68 by 47, and 70.5 by 45 millimeters. 



Young. — The period of incubation is about four weeks. When 

 first hatched the young are far from attractive, looking more like 

 shapeless masses of half-dried meat than young birds, with swollen 

 protuberances for heads which they are unable to hold up ; the livid, 

 dark reddish naked skin gradually turns to dull black; the eyes 

 open during the first few days and by the end of a week the young- 

 ster is able to sit up and take notice. When about two weeks old the 

 black goose-flesh produces little tufts of white down which rapidly 

 covers the whole body. When about half grown the wing quills 

 begin to sprout and are soon followed by the light brown first plu- 

 mage of the back. The fully grown young are light brownish gray 

 above, darker on the wings and white below. This first or juvenal 

 plumage is probably worn for about a year. Subsequent molts and 

 plumages are undoubtedly the same as in the California brown 

 pelican, which I have been able to work out more satisfactorily and 

 to which I refer the reader. 



The feeding of young pelicans is a most remarkable performance 

 and in a thickly populated colony where the struggle for existence 

 is keen it is not lacking in excitement. The youngest birds are 

 fed on regurgitated or semidigested food which is allowed to flow 

 to the tip of the parent's bill, where it can be readily reached by the 

 almost helpless little bird. As the young increase in size they are 

 graduaUy weaned and soon learn to thrust their heads and necks, 

 Sometimes two at a time, deep down into the innermost recesses of 

 the parental pouch, where with much struggling and squawking they 

 find a hearty meal of fish in various stages of digestion. The old 

 birds have evidently learned by experience just what kind of food is 

 best suited to the age of the young, feeding larger fish as the young 

 increase in size, but occasionally they make a mistake and give the 

 little peUcans more than they can swallow, which means that the 



