we know them now. If such as he had records, of what strange things could he tell us! What strange tales of the lost Atlantis and of the glacial epochs. The close resemblance of the European Pelican to ours would indicate that they were once a single species, for it is not easy to imagine two such similar forms developing eight thousand miles apart. Perhaps they are descendants of common ancestors who nested around the north pole when that region was far warmer than now, and before Europe and America were separated by the wide Atlantic! It is not easy to determine to hew great an age individual pelicans attain, although they are believed to be long-lived.
An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|Condor19(6).djvu/5}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |  |
Fig. 55. Young White Pelicans on Yellowstone Lake
Little is known about the winter home of the Yellowstone birds, but it is probably at the head of the Gulf of California, near the mouth of the Colorado River. Large numbers of White Pelicans are known to winter there. A few also winter on the lakes of the Mexican plateau, and on the Gulf coast to the east. Still it isn't likely that our birds would wander as far as that, at least not regularly. The White Pelican does not breed along the sea coast, but retires in spring to the inland lakes stretching from Salton Sea as far north as Fort Smith in northern Canada. In Canada it breeds farther to the east, but the Yellowstone is the most eastern of the American colonies, although former-
