68 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



The adult in breeding plumage differs from the winter adult mainly in the clear black 

 and more glossy plumage and the presence on each side of the head of a tuft of narrow, 

 slender, black feathers. The winter adult has the entire under parts black, as also the 

 rump, tail, and head and neck all around; the back and upper surface of the wings light 

 brown, each feather margined with black; bare skin of the gular pouch orange in summer, 

 yellowish at other times. The tail has but twelve feathers. Immature birds have no 

 glossy black at all, but are gray, brownish-gray or brown, darker above and lighter below, 

 but always known by the peculiar, hooked bill, fully webbed feet and long stiff tail with 

 twelve feathers. Length of adult 29 to 34 inches; wing, 12 to 13; tail, 6 to 6.50; bill, 2 to 

 2.50. 



Family L3. PELECANID.E.— Pelicans. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. Twenty-four tail-feathers; lower jaw feathered, plumage of body en- 

 tirely white or with yellow on chest. — White Pelican. No. 28. 

 AA. Twenty-two tail feathers, lower jaw naked, plumage of body mixed 

 brown, gray and white. — Brown Pelican. No. 29. 



28. White Pelican. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmcl. (125) 



Synonyms: Common Pelican (of the north). — Pelecanus trachyrhynchos. Lath., 1790. 

 —P. onocrotalus, Bonap., Nutt. — P. americanus, Aud. 



A nearly white bird with black wing-tips and an expanse of eight or 

 ten feet can hardly be mistaken for anything else; and when this is coupled 

 with the possession of fully webbed feet and a bill at least a foot long 

 with leathery pouch below the bill there is no possibility of mistake. 



Distribution. — Temperate North America, north in the interior to about 

 latitude 61°, south in winter to western Mexico and Guatemala; now rare 

 or accidental in the northeastern states; abundant in the interior and 

 along the Gulf coast; common on the coast of California. 



This bird is httle more than a straggler in Michigan, yet there are many 

 authentic records, and the bird is such a large and remarkable one that 

 when captured the specimens have been preserved in most cases. It is 

 a well known species in the Mississippi Valley and the lakes of the Great 

 Plains region, and nests abundantly, and usually in colonies, in Manitoba 

 and other parts of British North America. There is no record of its nesting 

 in Michigan nor any likelihood that it has ever done so. It most often 

 occurs here in pairs or small squads, seldom more than four or five being 

 seen together. The following are the records I have collected: Clam 

 Lake, Wexford county, April, 1892 (Covert); Whitmore Lake, Washtenaw 

 county, October 4, 1878, and Lake Wade, July, 1879 (Covert); Sarnia 

 Bay, opposite Port Huron, no date (Hazel wood) ; Detroit River, July, 

 1902 (Swales); Detour, Chippewa county, fall of 1894, and another in 

 Hay Lake, St. Mary's River, earlier in the same year (Boies) ; two specimens 

 in the Broas collection at Belding, without data, but probably taken in 

 that vicinity (Barrows); Monroe, about 1882, mounted by B. J. Savage 

 of Monroe (Savage was with the man who shot it and says it was one of four 

 which were seen and followed fi'om place to place for several hours) (Bar- 

 rows); three killed in the vicinity of Marquette, and mounted by F. H. 

 W. Bailey of that city, the last one killed near Baraga in the spring of 



