144 SULIDZ. 
Pril. nupt. crista occipitali et nuchali; area prepectorali pallide flava; tectricibus minime flavo lavatis ; culmine 
cornu Osseo ornato. 
Juv. adultis similis, sed tectricibus minoribus brunneis, albido marginatis. 
Hab. Norra America, north in the interior to about lat. 61°, along the Gulf coast 
and on the coast of California 9.—Mexico, Rio Mazatlan (Grayson *), Guanajuato, 
Guadalajara (Dugés*), Valley of Mexico (Herrera’, Sumichrast), San Mateo ®, 
Orizaba!2 (Sumichrast); Guaremata (Skinner ?), Mazatenango (Bernouwlli™), 
Huamachal (0. S.? 1°). 
This species appears to be only a winter visitor to Central America, chiefly along the 
Pacific coast. Grayson says that it is occasionally seen in large numbers on the Rio 
Mazatlan, where it does not long remain, and Salvin met with a huge flock of at least 
a thousand in Guatemala, on the lagoons of Huamachal. 
The American White Pelican soars like a Vulture, while the common P. fuscus does 
not, to our knowledge, do more than skim the surface of the waves. When in pursuit 
of prey, we observed that they never flew more than twenty or thirty yards from where 
they rose, while the noise they made when dashing into the water could be heard at a great 
distance, and the surface would be lashed into foam where many plunged in together. 
The nest is described by Mr. Ridgway as merely a heap of earth and gravel raked 
into a pile and slightly hollowed, about six or eight inches high and twenty broad. 
The eggs are two, rarely three, in number, of a dull chalky-white colour. 
Fam. SULIDA. 
The Gannets are birds of extensive distribution, being found in nearly every temperate 
and tropical ocean. 
The osteological features of the family are given by Mr. Pycraft in his diagnosis 
contributed to volume xxvi. of the ‘Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum ’:— 
“ Palatines fused in the middle line, with a slight median keel; a well-marked nasal 
hinge; postorbital process emarginate. Greater part of the carina sterni and the 
region of the sternum bearing the coracoid grooves produced far forward beyond 
the anterior lateral process of the sternum.” 
Mr. Ogilvie Grant, in the same volume, gives the external characters, which we have 
reproduced below under the heading of the genus Sula. 
SULA. 
Sula, Brisson, Orn. vi. p. 494 (1760); Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 423 (1898). 
One genus only of this family is acknowledged by Mr. Ogilvie Grant, from whose work 
we adopt the characters here given :—“ Bill stout, subcylindrical, and pointed, tapering 
gradually towards the extremity, which is very slightly curved, but never hooked; a 
linear groove on each side of the culmen ; nostrils completely fused in adults ; cutting- 
