The Brown Pelican on Long Island. — On May 26, 1912, we ob- 
served a Brown Pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis), feeding around the 
shoals at the western end of Oak Island beach. When first seen, at long 
range, we decided that it was a stick, with a white top. Five minutes 
later, to our intense surprise, the stick flew away, and we knew at once it 
was a Brown Pelican. The great size, the long bill and pouch, the whitish 
crown and the slow sailing flight as it flapped away majestically over the 
water were unmistakable with the naked eye, not to mention 9 x binocu- 
lars. The bird settled on another sand-bar, and while preening its feathers, 
we approached to within 150 yards. For the next hour and a half the bird 
flew from bar to bar, as the tide rose, occasionally catching a fish, by scoop- 
ing it up with its lower mandible, but for the most part sitting on a bar, 
preening its feathers, until the tide flushed it off, when it would fly to another. 
This is the second record for Long Island, as far as we have been able to 
discover. — Jtjlius M. Johnson and Ludlow Griscom, New York City. 
