THE AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 625 



•IT is a matter for the doctors to settle whether the Water Turkey, which 

 formerly bred in numbers at the St. Mary's Reservoir, really belonged to the 

 smaller southern form, called the Florida Cormorant, or whether, as the 

 writer suspects, they were indistinguishable from the typical form dilophus, 

 now known only as a bird of passage. 



The Double-Crested Cormorant is a heavy bird of rather sluggish habits, 

 altho it is expert at swimming and diving. In flight it moves rather rapidly, 

 but with labored stroke and outstretched neck, something after the fashion 

 of the Great Blue Heron. Much of its time is spent near the water, upon 

 projecting snags or low rocks. From these convenient stations the birds 

 watch intently for the appearance of fish in the depths below, and these, if not 

 secured at the first dart, are pursued relentlessly under water. 



The Cormorant is becoming less and less common even as a migrant, 

 being fiercely persecuted by fishermen and thoughtlessly shot by every would- 

 be sportman who can hit a flying barn ; and it is no longer known as a resident. 

 I have seen only one bird myself, and that upon the Licking Rservoir, on 

 the second day of December, 1902. It is claimed, however, by residents, that 

 some are to be seen there every year. 



Concerning its former abundance at St. Mary's, I follow Dr. Wheaton 

 in quoting Mr. Charles Dury's account of a visit to that locality made in 

 June, 1867:^ 



"On the south side of the Reservoir, about seven miles from Celina, was 

 the Water Turkey's rookery. Here I used to go and shoot them with the 

 natives, who wanted them for their feathers ; I have helped kill a boat load. 



"One season I climbed up to their nests and got a cap full of their eggs. 

 The nests were made of sticks and built in the forks of the branches. The 

 trees (which were all dead) were mostly oaks and covered with excrement. 

 I found from two to four eggs or young to a nest. The young were queer 

 little creatures — looked and felt like India rubber. The old birds flew around 

 and made their croaking notes, indicative of their displeasure at my presence. 

 Some of the trees had ten or twelve nests on them. As the timber has rotted 

 and blown down, the birds have become less and less numerous." 



No. 311. 



AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 



A. O. U. No. 125. Pelecanus erythrorhynchus Gmel. 



Description. — Adult in breeding plumage: General plumage white; the 

 primaries blackish touched with hoary gray near tips; secondaries blackish with 

 white basally ; a pendant occipital crest of white or pale yellow ; lanceolate feathers 



1 Reported by Mr., now Dr., F. W. Langdon in "Observations on Cincinnati Birds,"— Jour, of the 

 Gin. Soc. of Nat. Hist. Oct. 1878. 



