HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE, 
3.", 
landing and shipping die stock from the peril- 
ous surf, which is always found on this coast." 
" In September of last year I left for Cape 
Town, and, after traversing the surrounding 
neighbourhood, I betook myself to Port Eliza- 
beth and Graaf Reinet, and from the latter point 
twenty miles inland to a small village, where I 
found the best part of the specimens just 
brought home. Although with the consignment 
just arrived none of the larger antelopes has 
been brought, I have already obtained nine 
gnus, four koodoos, and two pairs of boutebok 
antelopes, the latter of which have not been 
seen in Britain for a quarter of a century. The 
antelopes and birds of South Africa I found were 
fully protected, and it was only with the great- 
est amount of trouble that I could obtain per- 
mission to procure the specimens I particularly 
desired. When I return to Africa, as I shall do 
shortly, I shall go up country as far as Victoria 
Falls, where I expect to receive four giraffes 
and various other antelopes. I have been fur- 
nished with the necessary permits to secure 
these animals." 
(To be continued.) 
-®- 
THE 
PELICAN ROOKERIES AT 
PYRAMID LAKE. 
Pyramid Lake is a mountain lake in the State 
of Nevada, close to the border line of California. 
Some fifty miles in length, and of breadth varying 
from 5' to 12 miles. Its depth is profound, being 
considered "bottomless" by the Indians and early 
settlers. It is, in fact, a massive catchment basin 
receiving the waters from its famous rival, Lake 
Tahoe, which enter at the southern extremity. 
There being no outflow, the waters of the lake 
are somewhat stale, but potable. The area of the 
surface is broken by groups of rocks rising in fan- 
tastic forms above the water and varying from an 
elevation of 2 feet to 250 feet. These rocks con- 
stitute the sites for the rookeries, upon which the 
pelicans congregate in great numbers. From a 
distance, these solid phlanxes of birds look like 
great snow banks, reflecting in brilliant contrast 
in the deep sapphire blue of the lake. Gulls, 
several species, also munes and cormorants, are 
tenants-in-part of the rookeries. The pelicans are 
the dominant residents, and under Government 
protection and abundant food supply are firmly 
established. The principal fish supply is suckers 
and chub; trout are also found in the lake, but 
scarcely enter into the dietary of the pelicans. 
Dr. Barton Evermann visited the Islands in June, 
1917, to study the birds and secure a group col- 
lection to be mounted in the display series in the 
world-famous collection for the Academy of 
Sciences Museum, in the Golden (late Park, San 
Francisco. 
The rookeries are essentually 
vegetation, but provide abundant 
denuded of 
" nooks and 
crannies" which are specially selected by the gulls 
and cormorants as nesting places. The pelicans 
select the shelving terraces which are often rough- 
surfaced with disintegrating rocks. Here the 
eggs, rarely exceeding two in number, are laid, 
and the young raised. The newly-hatched peli- 
can is an uncanny and grotesque looking entity, 
darkish in colour, suggesting a rubber-doll that 
has been misshaped by rough usage, its move- 
ments are constant, wing-arms, illshaped limbs, 
and huge head, with beak and pouch adding to its 
grotesque contour, and these latter seem to anchor 
their unfortunate owner as it vainly tries to "sit 
up." Thus the chick with its hard rock bed, ex- 
posed to a baking sun, which seems hot enough 
to frizzle it, "muddles thru" until kindly Nature in 
a few weeks clothes it with a dense harsh down 
coat that fits like a sweater, and gives the bird a 
still more artificial " make-up" appearance. When 
able to waddle from the immediate nest-site, the 
young pelicans consort in flocks, herd together 
as closely as sheep on a pack-run. These com- 
bined sets from a distance appear as a mass of sea 
spume moving a top of restless waves; closer ap- 
proach the mass takes shape and the chicks are 
seen jostling and crowding forcibly — the central 
ones apparently being trampled upon as well as 
suffocated. The outer members, each with beak 
half open, and the pouch sucking in and out to 
get air like an asthmatic's chest in a spasm, keep 
ever crowding towards the centre, the hot wells, 
the sun-baked air and a temperature of 105 in 
shade, constitutes a strange contradiction of the 
value of cubic space in nursery wards — but they 
manage to survive and very few dead chicks are 
found. Dr. Evermann secured a series of motion 
pictures, and undoubtedly the most unique as well 
as valuable films from a scientific view point is 
that illustrating feeding the }oung. 
The mother alights near the chicks (those in 
the picture about size of 3 or 4 weeks old squab), 
the youngster waddles closer and commences 
picking at the feet of the mother, evidently with 
some effect, as the parent moves round or raises 
one foot after the other. This performance may 
occupy five or ten minutes finally the mother low- 
ers her body, and placing the beak at a rather 
acute angle, the mandibles are widely separated, 
and the chick buries his head and neck up to the 
shoulders^ stands upon tip toes, the rudimentary 
wings working in a circular manner to keep the 
beak well "home" in the pouch of the parent. The 
motions of the little one can be distinctly seen 
burrowing into the mass of food contained in the 
pouch and gullet of the mother. It is no gentle 
