The White Pelican 



1 8 miles away. He claimed to have visited the place on the 1st day 

 of May, at which time most of the nests to the number of "thousands" 

 were occupied. Goldman had heard similar rumors in 1907. ' 



Heermann stated, in 1859, that "a few pairs" were breeding in the 

 Sacramento Valley. Probably the descendants of the colony referred to 

 were among the ones photographed by Mr. George Neale on Lone Tree 

 Island, about three miles northwest of the City of Sacramento, on June 

 28th, 1910. 2 Very possibly there are several scattered colonies in the 

 great central valley of which we have no record at this time. 



The next "registered" breeding station appears to be Eagle Lake, 

 where, in 1884, Charles H. Townsend found the birds in great num- 

 bers. 3 "There are two islands lying in this beautiful sheet of water, 

 and I observed that the pelicans had taken almost exclusive possession 

 of one of them, the other being similarly occupied by equally large num- 

 bers of shags." 



Lastly, Finley and Bohlman, visiting Tule (or Rhett) Lake in the 

 summer of 1905, found a small colony breeding in association with 

 Farallon Cormorants. Lower Klamath Lake, on the Oregon-California 

 boundary, was visited the same season, and of the eight or ten big rookeries 

 there discovered, it is fair to presume that a large proportion were Cali- 

 fornia feeders, if not breeders. 



According to this authority, 4 "The pelican season begins in April 

 after the snow and ice have melted, and lasts till August and September 

 when the young are able to care for themselves. In June and July, when 

 we visited the colonies, the young were able to walk and swim about, 

 but the wing feathers had not yet developed flying strength, for the birds 

 were still in the downy stage. 



"It takes about a month for the pelican to hatch its eggs, and the 

 baby pelican is naked, helpless and ugly, and has to be shielded from the 

 sun by its mother. Its ugliness increases with age till the youngster 

 is covered with white down. The young birds stick close to the nesting 

 site where they are fed by the parents, until, when about six weeks 

 old, they begin to run about and mingle with the other young birds. 



"It would be difficult to tell how an old pelican can recognize her 

 own, but she seems to do it, for nesting is not a communal matter. i\s 

 soon as an old bird alighted in the rookery, she was besieged by half a 

 dozen young ones, but I never saw one of the parents feed till she had 

 apparently made some selection as to the young. 



"The half grown pelicans stand around with their mouths open, pant- 



1 Condor. Vol. X., Sept., 1008, p. 201. 



3 Calif. Fish and Game. Vol. 2, No. 3,' July, 1016, p. 161. 



» Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.. Vol. X., 1887 p. 192. 



* "Among the Pelicans," by William L. Finley. Condor Vol. IX. March ,1907 .pp. 35-41. 



I969 



