Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/21

6 each pair of nests, we then have a total of 796 hirds which had left the 531 deserted nests. Add to this number the 148 youn.ii remaining in the nest and two adults for each of the 710 nests built during the 1900 nesting season, and we have as the population of Pelican Island for that year, 2,364, or a decrease of 372 birds since 1898, when it was estimated that there were 2,736 birds on the island. Pelican Island contains about four acres of ground, of which less than BROWN PELICAN AND NEST IN YOUNG CABBAGE PALMETTO The same nest, with a bird seated on it, is shown in the picture on the opposite page. Note.— The head of this bird, from the eye upward, projected beyond the edge of the plate and was not. therefore, photographed. It has here been supplied by Chas. R. Knight, from sketches from life. one-quarter is occupied by the birds, most of the nests being grouped in one thickly populated area, which, it was interesting to observe, was without a single nest in 1898. No change in the surrounding conditions was observed, and the reason for this desertion of one part of the island for another was not evident. There was, too, a marked variation in regard to the character of the nests built on the ground as compared with those on the island in 1898,