PEL VIS— PENG UIN 703 



thus proving the former existence of the bird in England at no very- 

 distant period, and one of them being that of a young example 

 points to its having been bred in this country. It is possible from 

 their large size that they belonged to P. crispus. Ornithologists 

 have been much divided in opinion as to the number of living species 

 of the genus Felecamis (cf. op. cit. 1868, p. 264; 1869, p. 571; 

 1871, p. 631) — the estimate varying from six to ten or eleven ; but 

 the former is the number recognized by M. Dubois (Bull. Mus. Belg. 

 1883). North America has one, P. erythrorhynclms, very similar to 

 P. onocrotalus both in appearance and habits, but remarkable for a 

 triangular, compressed, horny excrescence which is developed on the . 

 ridge of the -male^ bill in the breeding-season, and, as ascertained ^/- C^^f"^ 

 by Mr. Ridgway {3is, 1869, p. 350), falls ofi" without leaving trace ^ 



of its existence when that is over (cf. Moult, page 599). Australia 

 has P. conspicillatus, easily distinguished by its black tail and wing- 

 coverts. Of more marine habit are P. philippensis and P. fuscus, the 

 former having a wide range in Southern Asia, and, it is said, reaching 

 Madagascar, and the latter being common on the coasts of the 

 warmer parts of both North and South America.^ 



PELVIS, that part of the trunk to which are attached the 

 hind limbs, and consisting of a number of fused vertebrae, beside 

 three coalescent portions on either side of the Median line — the 

 Ilium, Ischium and Os Pubis (see Skeleton). 



PEN, said by Yarrell to be the technical name of the hen Mute 

 Swan, the cock being called Cob. 



PENELOPE, the generic name most inappropriately given by 

 Merrem to the GUANS and occasionally used as English. 



PENGUIN, the name of a flightless sea-bird,^ but, so far as is 



^ The genus Pelecanus as instituted by Linnseus included the Cormoeant and 

 Gannet as well as the true Pelicans, and for a long while these and some other 

 distinct groups, as the Snake-birds, Frigate-birds, and Tropic-birds, which 

 have all the four toes of the foot connected by a web, were regarded as forming a 

 single Family, Pelecanidsz. ; but this name has now been restricted to the Pelicans 

 only, though all are still usually associated under the name Steganopodes. It 

 may be necessary to state that there is no foundation for the venerable legend of 

 the Pelican feeding her young with blood from her own breast, which has given 

 her an important place in ecclesiastical heraldry, except that, as Mr. Bartlett has 

 suggested {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 146), the curious bloody secretion ejected 

 from the mouth of the Flamingo may have given rise to the belief, through that 

 bird having been mistaken for the " Pelican of the wilderness." 



- Of the three derivations assigned to this name, the first is by Drayton in ^J" fMi^. 

 1613 {Polyolhion, Song 9), where it is said to be the Welsh pen gwyn, or " white / ' i/~^ 



head " ; the second, which seems to meet with Littre's approval, deduces it from 

 the Latin pingicis (fat) ; the third supposes it to be a corruption of "pin- wing" 

 {Aim. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, iv. p. 133), meaning a bird that has undergone the 

 operation of pinioning or, as in one part at least of England it is commonly called 



