22 AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 



on the waters of the inland bays of the Mexican Gulf! On the 2nd of 

 April, 1837, I met with these birds in abundance at the south-west entrance 

 or mouth of the Mississippi, and afterwards saw them in the course of the 

 same season, in almost every inlet, bay, or river, as I advanced toward Texas, 

 where I found some of them in the Bay of Galveston, on the 1st of May. 

 Nay, while on the Island of Grande Terre, I was assured by Mr. Andrt, a 

 sugar-planter, who has resided there for some years, that he had observed 

 White Pelicans along the shores every month of the year. Can it be, that 

 in this species of bird, as in many others, barren individuals should remain 

 in sections of countries altogether forsaken by those which are reproductive? 

 The latter, we know, travel to the Rocky Mountains and the Fur Countries 

 of the north, and there breed. Or do some of these birds, as well as of 

 certain species of our Ducks, remain and reproduce in those southern locali- 

 ties, induced to do so by some organic or instinctive peculiarity? Ah, 

 reader, how little do we yet know of the wonderful combinations of Nature's 

 arrangements, to render every individual of her creation comfortable and 

 happy under all the circumstances in which they may be placed! 



My friend John Bachman, in a note to me, says that "this bird is now 

 more rare on our coast than it was thirty years ago; for I have heard it 

 stated that it formerly bred on the sand banks of our Bird Islands. I saw 

 a flock on the Bird Banks off Bull's Island, on the 1st day of July, 1814, 

 when I procured two full-plumaged old birds, and was under the impression 

 that they had laid eggs on one of those banks, but the latter had the day 

 previous to my visit been overflowed by a spring tide, accompanied with 

 heavy wind." 



A single pair of our White Pelicans were procured not far from Phila- 

 delphia, on the Delaware or Schuylkill, ten or twelve years ago, and one or 

 two have been shot on the upper waters of the Hudson. These were the 

 only birds of this kind that, I believe, were ever observed in our Middle 

 Districts, where even the Brown Pelican, Pelecanus fuscus, is never seen. 

 From these facts, it may be concluded that the White Pelicans reach the Fur 

 Countries of Hudson's Bay by inland journeys, and mostly by passing along 

 our great western rivers in the spring months, as they are also wont to do, 

 though with less rapid movements, in autumn. 



Reader, I have thought a thousand times perhaps that the present state of 

 migration of many of our birds, is in a manner artificial, and that a portion 

 of the myriads of Ducks, Geese, and other kinds, which leave our Southern 

 Districts every spring for higher latitudes, were formerly in the habit of 

 remaining and breeding in every section of the country that was found to be 

 favourable for that purpose. It seems to me that it is now on account of the 

 difficulties they meet with, from the constantly increasing numbers of our 



