180 Mr. Blyth's Commentary 



the old supposition of the Pelican feeding its young from its 

 own breast ! Dr. Jerdon considers this to be the most abun- 

 dant of the White Pelicans that visit India. 



A fourth race is a similar diminutive of P. mitratus, which I 

 take to be the Onocrotalus minor of Riippell. A specimen 

 lately sent to the Zoological Society by Capt. Beavan, from 

 Burma, has a remarkably full pendent occipital crest, the longest 

 feathers of which measure 3*5 in.; bill to forehead II inches. 

 This bird is very distinct from several examples of P. onocro- 

 talus apud Jerdon, which were forwarded together with it. 



Of the P. crispus type, with white irides in the adult, there 

 appear to me to be two nearly allied species — P. rufescens in 

 Africa, rather larger, with bill unspotted, or the spots hardly 

 discernible, and P. philippensis in Southern Asia, with the upper 

 mandible conspicuously marked with a row of impressed black 

 spots on each side of its medial ridge above. Prof. Schlegel 

 unites them as one species. There is a living example in semi- 

 adult plumage, from Western Africa, now in the Zoological 

 Gardens, and the skin of a nearly similar individual, from Natal, 

 in the British Museum ; and these certainly do not appear to 

 me to be quite identical with the Indian bird. But I only know 

 of the latter with somewhat deep vinous-rufescent back and 

 rump in the mature plumage, which Dr. Jerdon considers to 

 exemplify " undoubted rufescens," as distinguished from his 

 " Grey Pelican " of Southern India, the latter being, in my 

 opinion, the same bird in semi-adult phase (as described by 

 him) ; and cei'tainly I saw a fine living adult in the Zoological 

 Garden at Madras with the colouring which he supposes to dis- 

 tinguish P. rufescens. 



Pelicans are long-lived birds which attain their fully mature 

 plumage not before their third or fourth moult ; and, where shot 

 at, the old ones become shy and are comparatively seldom ob- 

 tained, nearly all of those which are not uncommonly brought to 

 the Calcutta provision-bazar being in immature plumage. The 

 details which I have here given will help considerably to direct 

 future observations; and it is veiy desirable that all of the 

 Indian species and races, excepting P. mitratus, should be sent 

 alive to the Zoological Gardens, where already there are species 



