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 Sept., 1908 BIRDS OF A VOYAGE ON SALTON SEA 189 The material is thus pulled towards the sitter, but not.from a farther distance than 828 mm front the center, beyond which the bird is evidently not able to reach. The spacing of the nests in the colony, quite regular in places, seenis to be de- pendent on the reach and conflicting interests of the inhabitants. The sets of eggs were never closer together than 828 ram, usually 1380 mm apart. The gromtd between the nests was usually absolutely clear of even the finer fragments, these having been scraped up onto the walls of the nests. On the upper hill-slopes, the uests were more scanty. for material was scarce. Some were made wholly of angular pumice or dried mud fragments, some of brush stems, and some of just soft earth. But their diameter was an almost constant quantity, between 414 and 532 mm. The depression was 46 to 69 mm deep, so that there was nearly always a well-defined rint to the nest. The higher nests, those in the drift, were mounds as much as 276 mm tall. While gulls, cormorants and herons were seen in the vicinity, the pelicans were the ouly water birds nesting on Echo Island. As long as we renmined on the Island, until late the next forenoon, the latter refused to return to their nests even in the night. They remained in large "rafts" on the water a mile or so off-shore. WHITE PELICANS "RAFTING" OFF-SHORE NEAR ECHO ISLAND, SALTON SEA, APRIL 19, 19t)8 Occasionally a party would fly pabst overhead. Front one of these, two of the big birds were shot and Richardson and I skinned them out on the beach, using the fine pumice sand as an absorbent to very good advantage. During the night a stiff breeze came up from the east, and before we were aroused, the boat beached broadside on. We were wakened by the pounding of the waves on her sides, and hurried out; but all our efforts failed to keep her front fill- ing. The batteries were ruined, and our further explorations were curtailed. After the wind went down, and after a vast amount of bailing and heaving, we got the boat off the sand. But meanwhile we had enjoyed a prolonged bath in the tepid brackish waters of Salton Sea. Before noon we took leave of Echo Island, and bent to the oars heading for the station of Lano about north of us some 12 miles. Incidentally, without pulling much out of our way, we were able to land on Pelican Island, a small rocky ledge three miles front Echo Island. Here we found a large breeding colony of Farallone Cormorants(Phalacrocorax aur/lus alboriliatus). Long before we reached Pelican Island, corntorants kept flying past us towards it, each one carrying a stick or bark shred. As we landed hordes of birds left their nests or roosting places and circled about close over us. According to Donham this was formerly (that is two and three years ago) lite