254 THE Birps Azout Us. 
sylvania, but mentions a sufficient number of instances 
of its being seen or shot to warrant my inference that 
at one time the pelican was not uncommon. 
Pelican. 
West of the Mississippi it is common. Dr. Coues 
says, “It formerly bred in immense numbers about 
Great Salt Lake, where it has decreased in abundance 
of late.” Ridgway found it breeding “in vast bands” 
about Pyramid Lake in Nevada, the nest being merely 
a heaping up of the earth to a height of a few inches. 
Nuttall, quoting Richardson (the author of “ Fauna 
