THE CONDOR 
126 
Voi.. VI 
noted in Texas or Florida. The route the species take.s from Brazil to California 
is one of the yet unsolved migration puzzles. 
The red-eyed vireo, the commonest and best known of its tuneful family, win- 
ters in Central America, from Guatemala to Panama. The advent of the species in 
spring at the mouth of the Mississippi and its even-paced passage at 20 miles per 
day for six weeks to the headwaters of the river are well attested by numerous 
records. But just about the time northern Nebraska is reached, and before they 
have appeared in any of the intervening country, red-eyed vireos are noted in 
south British Columbia, 1,000 miles to the northwest. Is the presence of the red 
eye in British Columbia to be explained by the theory that it suddenly flies 1,000 
miles in a single night? 
It is such problems as these that continually vex and fascinate the investigator. 
Washington, D. C. 
Pelicans Nesting at Utah Lake 
liV REV. S. n. GOODWIN 
E ight miles southwest of the Provo Resort, on Utah l.ake, lies a small, low 
crescent-shaped ridge of land known as Rock Island. During the period of 
unusually high water, of the past spring, the major portion of this island 
was barely tw'o feet above tlie water, while a part of it was considerably less. 
When visited by our party it was about two hundred yards in length by about 
thirty yards in w'idth, at the widest point, while fully one hundred yards of the 
western horn of the island was under some three inches of water, above which rose 
a broken line of detached boulders. Theo’Aprincipal part of this island is a lime- 
stone ledge with loose rocks and boulders scattered over the surface; about one- 
third of the eastern end is of gravel. The only vegetation consists of a few 
clumpsof stunted willow, and a narrow, ragged fringe of tulesalong the northern edge 
Equipped with glass, gun, and camera a party of four of us laboriously made 
our way toward this island one June morning, for reports had come that hundreds 
of pelicans {Pelecanns eryihrorhynchos') were nesting there for the first time in the 
history of the island. From time immemorial the.se strange, solemn birds had 
foraged on Utah Lake — where a few' years ago many hundreds of them were killed 
for the small bounty offered by the state — but never before had they nested here. 
Apparently they preferred the larger and more secluded islands in Salt Lake, 
fifty miles to the north. We had loaded our plunder into a small, water-soaked 
sail-boat, made everything ready and set sail — but we did not sail, as not so much 
as one breath of air was stirring and as there was no promise of an immediate 
change for the better, we rowed the entire distance. After the two preachers had 
bent to the oars for more than an hour and a half, and the sun had painted flame- 
color exposed wri.sts and unprotected necks, our sailing-master — who by the way 
is an old “salt,” and a descendant of generations of Scandinavian sea-rovers — cast 
his weather-eye toward the yet distant island and quaintly remarked: ‘T dinks 
ve vas nearder dot island dan ven ve started — I don’ know.” Encouraged by 
this heartening observation, the oarsmen renewed their efforts, and an hour later 
the boat touched the pointed end of the island. 
