PELICANS, CORMORANTS, AND PETRELS. 255 
Boreali-Americana”), states that in the fur countries 
they “deposit their eggs usually on small rocky 
islands on the banks of cascades where they can 
scarcely be approached, but still are by no means shy. 
They live together generally in flocks of from six to 
fourteen, and fly low and heavily, sometimes abreast, 
at others in an oblique line; and they are often seen 
to pass close over a building, or within a few yards 
of a party of men, without exhibiting any signs of 
fear.” 
Their food is fish principally, but other forms of 
animal life are not refused by them. 
J. K. Lord, describing the white pelicans as he saw 
them in British Columbia, says, seeing for the first 
time their breeding-grounds, “Their nests were on 
the ground amidst the rushes, ... simply a con- 
fused heap of rushes with a lot of down and feathers 
in the centre. On the water these huge birds swim 
as easily, buoyantly, and gracefully as swans; and in 
fishing do not swoop down from a height as does the 
brown pelican, but thrust their heads under water 
and regularly spoon up small fish with their im- 
mense pouched beaks.” 
The Brown Pelican is said by Ridgway to belong 
properly to the ‘‘coasts and islands of the Gulf of 
Mexico and Caribbean Sea, including West Indies; 
north, regularly, to North Carolina.” Beyond that all 
occurrence is “accidental,” and I wish a great many 
more “accidents” would occur in the course of 
nature; it would ‘liven up matters considerably. 
Moseley, in his “ Naturalist on the ‘ Challenger,’ ” 
says that as the ship steamed into the harbor of the 
