ZOOLOGY. 
109 
Like the pelicans of the Atlantic, those of the west are compelled to fish for the gulls, too idle 
to supply their wants by their own efforts, at least while they have so patient and efficient 
friends as the pelicans, from whom they can sponge their living. At the mouth of the Columbia 
the pelicans which I saw fishing were always attended each by one or more small gulls, ( L . 
Belcheri.) These gulls followed the pelican in its flight, and settled at its head when it made a 
successful plunge, snatching up any fish that might fall from its capacious gular sack. I did 
not notice that the pelican ever displayed the least resentment of the officious attentions of these 
little depredators. When, in December, we entered the bay of Panama, the brown pelicans were 
pay'ng tribute to the black-headed gulls, the same which, according to Audubon, follow the peli¬ 
cans in the Mexican Gulf. 
A large number of the individuals of P.fuscus, which I saw on the western coast, were young 
birds in brown dress, and I was able to obtain specimens exhibiting three phases of plumage : 
1st, ashy brown above and white below ; 2d, ashy brown above and whitish brown below ; 3d, 
head and neck all pure white, except a slight tinge of yellow in the cheeks ; back and base of 
neck silvery gray, feathers white at centre, ashy on their margins. Of the many thousands 
which I saw, none exhibited the phase of plumage given by Audubon as that of the mature bird, 
viz : neck, half dark brown and half yellowish white, the colors occupying longitudinal divisions. 
I had Audubon’s works in San Francisco, and examined the pelicans with particular reference 
to his descriptions, and I was so confident that no such bird as his mature P. fuscus was to be 
found in that locality, that I was disposed to regard the brown pelican of the Pacific as distinct 
from that of the Atlantic. 
It is perhaps not generally known that the fishes on which the pelican subsists are usually of 
very small size, large numbers of them being taken at every plunge. In the pelicans which I 
shot about San Francisco, I found in some cases the stomach distended with a quart or more of 
little fishes, from one to four inches in length ; and it was rare that I found any remains of large 
individuals. 
The pelican has in its greatest development the apparatus which gives buoyancy to many 
swimming birds. I allude to the system of sub-cutaneous air cells. In the brown pelican the 
skin is separated from the muscles over a large part of the surface, by an interval of half an inch 
or more, wholly occupied by a series of membranous air vessels. 
PELECANUS TRACHYRHYNCHUS ? ? 
The White Pelican. 
The white pelican, though generally distributed over the country west of the Rocky moun¬ 
tains, is far outnumbered by the brown species. Their habitats are, however, quite distinct, and 
they do not often come in competition in the pursuit of their aquatic food. 
The white pelican is rarely or never seen at San Francisco, at Astoria, or at any other place 
on the coast where the brown are so abundant; hut as one leaves the coast, penetrating the 
interior, on all the large rivers and inland lakes he will be sure to find it, though never in great 
numbers. It seems to occupy the inland lakes and rivers quite across the continent, and is 
evidently a fresh water bird ; while the brown species is as exclusively confined to the vicinity 
of salt water. While encamped on Klamath lake we several times saw flying over the tule 
marshes which border it a large white pelican, of which the wings seemed almost entirely black. 
It might have been the present species, but appeared to be distinct. 
