200 . BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



HAS. Atlantic coast of tropical and subtropical America, north In the United States to 

 North Carolina. Accidental in Illinois (C. K. WOBTHEN; cf. Bull, Nutt. Orn. Club. January, 

 1880. p. 31). 



SP. CHAR. Tail-feathers 22. : Malar region entirely naked; color silvery gray above 

 and dusky beneath in the adult, brown or grayish above and white beneath in the young; 

 bill grayish; pouch and feet dusky. Adult in full breeding -plumage: Head, and feathers 

 of the neck bordering the base of the gular pouch, white, the forehead sometimes tinged 

 with straw-yellow; rest of the neck rich chestnut or seal-brown, the upper part of the 

 nape with a narrow crest ot lighter reddish. Upper parts nearly uniform velvety light ash- 

 gray, the feathers of the upper part of the back, the smaller lesser wing-coverts, the rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts edged with dark snuff-brown. Lower parts uniform dark brownish 

 gray, the feathers of the sides, flanks, and crissum streaked centrally with silvery white. 

 Under wing-cover s and exterior border of wing, snuff-brown, streaked with silvery white. 

 "Bill grayish white, tinged with brown, and marked with irregulnr spots of pale carmine; 

 upper mandible dusky toward the end, lower blackish from the middle to near the end ; bare 

 space between the bill and eye deep blue; eyelids pink; iris white; feet black; gular pouch 

 greenish .black, the ridges of its wrinkles lighter" (AUDUBONI. Adult in winter: Similar 

 to the above, but head and neck wholly white, the head and lower part of the foreneck usu- 

 ally tinged with straw-yellow. Young, first plumage: Head and neck light brownish gray, 

 lighter on the nape, the tips of the feathers paler; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts dull 

 brown, the feathers tipped with light fulvous; secondaries, tertials. and rectrices siJvery 

 gray, edged with pal^r; rump and upper tail-coverts similar. Lower parts white, the sides, 

 flanks, and crissum tinged with brownish gray. "Bill grayish blue, its edges and unguis 

 grayish yellow; gular pouch dull grayish blue; iris brownish yellow; bare space around the 

 eye dusky blui-h; feet and claws dull lead-color" (AUDUBON). Young in autumn: Similar 

 to the adult, but head and neck dull light ash-gray, the feathers bordering the base of the 

 gular pouch white, the occiput dark plumbeous or slaty, the feathers streaked centrally, or 

 tipped, with white. Upper parts less uniform and more tinged with brownish than in tihe 

 adult. 



Total length, about 44.00 to 56.00 inches ; extent. 6.50 to 7.75 feet ; wing, 19.00-21.00 in -hes ; 

 culmen, 9.40-12.20; tarsus, 2.60-3.05; middle toe, 3.40-3.95. (Average of seven specimens, 19.79. 

 11.12, 2.84, 3.70.) Weight, about 7-8 Ibs. 



It was supposed by Audubon and other earlier writers that 

 the white-necked plumage, described above as the winter dress 

 of both sexes, represented the peculiar garb of the female. It is 

 now known, howevever, that both sexes assume this plumage 

 after the breeding season, there being at no time any obvious 

 difference in the colors of the plumage between the male and fe- 

 male. (Of. SCLATER, Proc. Zool Soc. Loud., 1868, p. 268.) 



The Brown Pelican is barely entitled to a place in the list of 

 Illinois birds, on account of a single specimen having been seen 

 (not taken) by Mr. C. K. Worthen, near Warsaw (see Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, V., 1880, p. 31). It is a tropical and subtropical 

 species, and, unlike the White Pelican, inhabits exclusively the 

 salt-water seas, bays, and estuaries, its occurence inland being 

 purely fortuitous. 



In many of its habits it is very different from the White Peli- 

 can, its manner of feeding being conspicuously so; for. while the 

 latter collects in companies which, swimming, drive their prey 



