DALMATIAN PELICAN. 171 



it in Western Greece, and gives the following grapMc 

 description:— "Time was, and not so long ago, wlien 

 Pelecanus crispiis lived in hundreds all the year round, 

 from the rocky promontory of Kourtzolari, hard by the 

 mouth of the Acheloiis, on the western extremity of 

 the lagoon, to the islands of J^^tolieo, up its northern 

 arms, and on the east to the great mud flats which 

 mark the limits of the present delta of the Phidaris. 

 Now-a-days a solitary individual may be seen fishing 

 here and there throughout the lagoon, but the small 

 remnant of this once mighty host have made their last 

 stand upon the islands which divide the Gulf of 

 Procopanisto from the Gulf of ^tolieo. Here, towards 

 the end of February last, the community of Pelicans 

 constructed a group of seven nests, — a sad falling off 

 from 1838, when thirty-five nests (the remains of which 

 had not then disappeared) were grouped in contiguous 

 proximity upon a neighbouring islet. It needs not 

 the nose of a pointer to discover the locality, even if 

 the large white birds themselves were not a sufficient 

 guide. As we approached the spot in a boat the 

 Pelicans left their nests, and, taking to the water, 

 sailed away like a fleet of stately ships, leaving their 

 newly built establishment in possession of the invader. 

 The boat grounded in two or three feet of mud, and 

 when the party had floundered through this, the seven 

 nests were discovered to be empty. A fisherman had 

 plundered them that morning, taking from each nest 

 one e^§, all of which we of course recovered. The 

 nests were constructed in a great measure of the old 

 reed palings used by the natives for enclosing the fish, 

 though with these were mixed such pieces of the 

 vegetation of the islet as were suitable for the purpose. 

 The seven nests were contiguous, and disposed in the 

 shape of an irregular cross, the navel of the cross. 



