Brown Pelican

This mature Brown Pelican was probably painted in the Florida Keys in April or May, 1832. Lehman drew the red mangrove branch.

"... I procured specimens at different places, but nowhere so many as at Key West. There you would see them flying within pistol-shot of the wharfs, the boys frequently trying to knock them down with stones, although I believe they rarely succeed ...."

When half fledged, "The Indians ... carry them off in considerable numbers; ... on the Halifax river, for instance, the Negroes kill all they can find, to make gombo soup of them during the winter."

Reproductions