196 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



B. Lower jaw wholly naked. Tail-feathers 22. (Subgenus Leptopelicanus.) 



2. P. fuscus. Prevailing color dusky, the upper parts silvery-striped in adults, grayish 

 brown in the young; bill dull grayish, or purplish brown, stained with red toward end 

 (inbreeding season); pouch greenish brown, grayish, or dusky. Wing, 19.00-21.00 

 inches; culmen, 9.40-12.20. 



Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmel. 



AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 

 Popular synonym. Rough -billed Pelican. 

 Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmel. S. N. i. pt. ii, 1788, 571.— Baird, B. N. Am. 1858, 868; Cat. 



N. Am. B. 1859, No. 615— Elliot, P. Z. S. 18(59,588 (monograph^).— Ridgw. Orn. 40th 



Par. 1877,627 (habits, e'c); Norn. N. Am. B. 1881,640; Man N. Am. B. 1887,82— B. B. & 



R. Water B. N. Am. ii, 1884, 131.— A. O. U. Check List, 1886. No. 125. 

 Pelecanus trachyrhy elms Lath. Ind. Orn. ii, 1790,884— Coues, Key 1872,300; Check List, 



1873, No. 526; 2d ed. 1882. No. 748; B. N.W. 1874,586— Bendike, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. 



1877, 146 (habits, nest and eggs, etc.) 

 Pelecanus onocrotalus ("a variety") Fobst. Philos. Trans. Ixii. 1772, 419. 

 Pelecanus onocrotalus Bonap. Synop. 1828, 400 (nee Linn.).— Sw. & Rich. F. B.-A. ii, 



1881, 472.— N utt. Man. ii. 1834, 471. 

 Pelecanus thagus Steph. Gen. Zool. xiii, 1826. 117 (Mexico; nee Molina). 

 Pelecanus hernandezii Wagl. Isis, 1832, 1233 (Mexico). 

 Pelecanus americanus Aud. Orn, Biog. iv, 1838, 88, pi. 311; Synop. 1839. 309, B. Am. vii, 1844, 



20, pi. 422. 

 Pelecanus occipitalis Ridgw. Am. Sportsman, iv, 1874, 297 (Nevada). 



Hab. The whole of North America, north in the interior to about 61°, south to Mexico 

 and Central America in winter; now rare or accidental along the Atlantic coast north of 

 Florida. 



Sp. Chae. Tail-feathers 24; malar region completely feathered; color chiefly white; 

 bill, pouch, and feet yellowish or reddish. Adult, nuptial plumage: Culmen with a narrow 

 median horny excresence, situated a little anterior to the middle, the upper outline 

 more or less convex, its fibres obliquely vertical, its size and exact shape variable. 

 Plumage white, sometimes tinged with pale pinkish, the narrow lesser wing-coverts and 

 jugular plumes straw-yellow or (rarely?) purplish buff; primaries dull black, their shafts 

 white toward the base; secondaries dusky, both webs edged with grayish white. Upper 

 part of the nape with a pendent crest of long, narrow, silky feathers of a pure white or 

 delicate straw-color. Bill chiefly orange, paler on the culmen. the nails and edges of the 

 maxilla and mandible more reddish; nmndible deeper red than the maxilla, growing al- 

 most brick-red basally; pouch dirty whitish anteriorly, where suffused with blackish, 

 passing suoces-ively through yellow and orange into intense dragon's-blood-red, or brick- 

 red, at the base; lower edge of the mandible sometimes blackish, and side of the mandible 

 sometimes marked, nearly opposite the maxillary crest, with a somewhat quadrate black 

 spot; baie skin of the lores and oibital region rich orange- yellow; eyelids dark reddish; 

 iris penrl- white 1 ; legs and feet intense orange-red. Adult, post-nuptial plumage {=P. oc- 

 cipitalis Ridgw.): Similar to the above, but maxillary excrescence wanting (having been 

 cast), and the nuchal crest replaced by a patch of brownish gray. A dult infall and winter: 

 Similar to the last, but no grayish patch on the occiput (crest also absent), the bill and feet 

 clear yellow. Young: Similar to the winter adult, but lesser wing-coverts biownish gray 

 centrally, pileum similarly marked; jugular feathers short and broad, and pure white, like 

 the other feathers of the lower surface; bill, pouch, and feet pale yellow. 



Total length about 53.50-61.00 inches; extent, 7.50-9.00 feet; wing, 22.25-25.25 inches; cul- 

 men, 11.30-15.00; tarsus, 4.30-4.65; middle toe, 3.70-4.25. 2 Weight of adult, about 17 pounds. 



iThe iris is said to be sometimes hazel. 



*The average of a series of eight adult examples is as follows: Wing, 23.55 inches; cul- 

 men. 12.62; tarsus, 4.50; middle toe, 3.98. 



