Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-25
A PELICAN YEAR.
Migration Begins in November and tho
Nesting Season May Last Till june.
From the Century Magazine.

From the Century Magazine.
Year after year. in the first week In No
vember. with singular exactness, the peii-
cans come to their unattractive little mud
fat. Some come from UP. some from down
the river. all evidently moved by q common
impulse. What Is lit 1t is not question
OF food. for the pelicans rarely feed near
their nesting place: 1t is not a question OF
climate. for they do not go far enough
from their breeding ground to experience
climatic changes when returning to It,
The Journey, Is doubtless prompted from
within. With birds the season of production
is periodic. and with migratory species.
whether the journey be to a nearby Island
or to another zone. the return to the breed
ing ground is only one phenomenon In
physiological cycle OF development which
includes, in regular order, migration, court
ship, egg laying, incubation the care OF the
young. the moult and the retreat to winter
quarters.
Even in the tropics birds, as rule. do not
nest until spring and early summer. but the
pelican wooes his mate in November and be-
gins housekeeping in the first month of win
ter. Among such dumb and undemonstra-
tive birds courtship must be a very solemn
affair, but no one seems to know much about
it. Apparently. however. 1t Is conducted to
the satisfaction Of beth contra citing parties.
and with the happtest results, for never
have l seen indica tons of domestic trouble
among the indigenes of pelicanlands The
warden. to whom l am indebted for these
dates of arrival and nesting, tells me that
the first mated birds resort to the trees.
where a bulky nest Of sticks lined with
coarse grasses Is built upon platform
made by laying heavier sticks from crotch
to crotch. When the arboreal sites are
taken the remaining birds. numbering about
one thousand pairs, build upon the ground
nests containing, as rule, more grass and
MIR I'D h1yf hail
relatives in the trees.
Unfortunately the island Is 50 low that q
norther raises the water sufficiently to
food all but sand bar at its eastern end.
Only those ground nesting birds which build
upon the sands. therefore. are secure from
the waves. Consequently. II one should visit
Pelican Island in April after the season Of
uorthers had passed, and see the olose-set
island unoccupied. one might credit the sur
vivors with ability intelligently to se T. a
nesting site above the reach OF the RS.
Whereas, In truth. the earlier b., OF
many Of these same birds. but low
ground had been inundated and eggs
washed from the nests. were still rtattered
about the island. Apparently, then. there is
here no conscious selection evolved by expe-
Renee Year after year birds nest on the
low ground and suffer the consequences.
while, by eimina ton, the high ground COL
ony is established through the disaster
which befalls all those that do not resort
to It.
The first of the three eggs to which the
pelicans limit themselves is laid by Deem
Der l. One might imagine that even In Flor
Ida winter was singularly inappropriate
season for Matching eggs. but pelicans are
iarge-bodied birds. and husband, as we'll as
Wife, is faithful to the duties Of incubation
one going on the nest as the other leaves It,
Normally, therefore, the eggs are never ex-
posed, and after about four weeks sitting
the little pelican announces itself by CHAR
acteristic choking grunt, uttered even be-
fore 1t leaves the shell.
1t is not an attractive creature at birth.
but In about eighteen days it's black, naked
ugliness Is concealed beneath a down SO
thick. soft and white that 1t might grace a
swan. The young of tree-nesting pelicans
do not leave their nest until they make
their first attempt at flight, but If the young
pelican chances to be born on the ground
1t Will go swimming for the first time when
about SIX weeks old and at the age of ten
weeks 1t will have learned to use its wings
In March. IL all goes we'll, the pelicans
may close their house for the season take
their family and go travelling, but June 1
sometimes finds birds still occupied with
domestic affairs. This extension of the nest
Ing season Is doubtless due in part to some
individual irregularity In the time of LAYING
but more largely to disaster of one kind on
another which befaus efforts at housekeen-
ing.
: High water. cold weather or exposure To
the sun before they are clothed are ali fac
TORS In creating high mortality among
young pelfcans. and few. indeed, are the IA
rents which succeed in raising a family ot
three. VI