Nov., 19i: 



BIRDS OF MOLLY ISLAND, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 



179 



we know them now. If such as he had records, of what strange things could he 

 tell us ! What strange tales of the lost Atlantis and of the glacial epochs. The 

 close resemblance of the European Pelican to ours would indicate that they 

 were once a single species, for it is not easy to imagine two such similar forms 

 developing eight thousand miles apart. Perhaps they are descendants of com- 

 mon ancestors who nested around the north pole when that region was far 

 warmer than now, and before Europe and America were separated by the wide 

 Atlantic ! It is not easy to determine to hew great an age individual pelicans 

 attain, although they are believed to be long-lived. 



ie, 9f 



Copyright by Haynes, St. Paul 



Fig. 55. Young White Pelicans on Yellowstone Lake 



Little is known about the winter home of the Yellowstone birds, but it is 

 probably at the head of the Gulf of California, near the mouth of the Colorado 

 River. Large numbers of White Pelicans are known to winter there. A few 

 also winter on the lakes of the Mexican plateau, and on the Gulf coast to the 

 east. Still it isn't likely that our birds would wander as far as that, at least 

 not regularly. The White Pelican does not breed along the sea coast, but re- 

 tires in spring to the inland lakes stretching from Salton Sea as far north as 

 Fort Smith in northern Canada. In Canada it breeds farther to the east, but 

 the Yellowstone is the most eastern of the American colonies, although former- 



