The White Pelican 



No. 398 



White Pelican 



A. O. U. No. 125. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmelin. 



Synonym. — Rough-billed Pelican. 



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

 black on exposed portions; secondaries black, touched with hoary gray near tips; a 

 pendent occipital crest of white or pale yellow; lanceolate feathers of lesser wing-coverts 

 and chest pale straw-yellow or buff; a thin, elevated, horny protuberance on ridge of 

 culmen a little forward of the middle; bill and pouch reddish; legs and feet bright orange- 

 red. Adult in winter: Similar but without horny protuberance on bill; the occipital 

 crest wanting; yellow coloring of chest and wing-coverts pale. Bill and feet not so 

 bright. Immature: Like adult in winter, but feathers of crown and lesser wing- 

 coverts mixed with brownish gray; chest feathers not modified; a fluffy, short, occipital 

 crest; the bill, pouch, legs, and feet pale yellowish. "Length 4^ to nearly 6 feet; 

 extent S}4 to nearly 10 feet; weight about 17 pounds" (Ridgway); wing 610 (24.40); 

 tail 152.4 (6.00); bill 266.7-381 (10.50-15.00); tarsus 123 (4.85). 



Recognition Marks. — Giant size, with large bill and gular pouch; white plumage. 



Nesting. — Nest: A crater of earth 4 or 5 inches high and surmounted by a few 

 twigs or weed-stems; nests in colonies on islands of large lakes. Eggs: 2 or 3, rarely 

 4, 5 of record; elongate ovate, or elliptical ovate, roughly chalky as to surface; white, 

 but often smeared longitudinally with bright olive (olive lake). Size variable; average 

 perhaps 87.6 x 58.4 (3.45 x 2.30). Season: April 15-May. 



General Range. — Interior and western North America; breeding from British 

 Columbia, Great Slave Lake, and southwestern Keewatin, south to Manitoba, Utah, 

 and southern Californa; wintering from Florida, the Gulf States, and southern 

 California south to Costa Rica; also occurring on the Atlantic Coast during migrations, 

 north to New Brunswick. 



Distribution in California. — Common resident both east and west of the Sier- 

 ras, or possibly retiring in winter from the northeastern plateau region. Appears on 

 lesser lakes and reservoirs and rarely coastwise during migrations or in seasonal wander- 

 ings; breeds on islands in Tule Lake, Eagle Lake (at least formerly), Sacramento 

 River (formerly), Tulare Lake, Buena Vista Lake, and Salton Sea. 



Authorities. — Gambel (Pelecanus trachyrhynchus), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 Phila., ser. 2, i., 1849, p. 227 (Calif.); Finley, Condor, vol. ix., 1907, p. 35, figs. (desc. 

 and photos of breeding colony at Tule Lake, n. Calif.) ; Grin nell, Condor, vol. x., 1908, 

 p. 187 (breeding colony on Salton Sea). 



WELL did the Psalmist of old choose the Pelican as the symbol of 

 the wilderness. "Dead" seas and salty, the mighty evaporating pans of 

 the desert, have here given rise to a race as weird, as majestic, as grace- 

 fully uncouth, as any that have ever adorned the pages of time. The 

 White Pelican is an embodiment of an elder age, a legacy of the opulent 

 days when Nature took thought of her winged children, and recked not 

 of the reign of man, man the ruthless, man the envious, man the destroyer. 



1961 



