70 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
are generally no basipterygoid processes, but rudiments have been recorded ; the 
nasal hinge is present but imperfect ; the lachrymal is large and fused with frontal. 
The cervical vertebre are seventeen in number, the dorsal heteroccelous ; the sternum 
is similarly shaped, but the furcula jis anchylosed to the keel. There is only one carotid 
artery, the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial and there are no intrinsic muscles, the bronchi- 
desmus complete. The leg muscle formula is AX—, and the biceps slip is absent. 
The oil gland is tufted with twelve orifices, the aftershaft apparently lacking and 
the wing aquincubital. The pterylosis is not known to offer any peculiarity, the 
young hatched naked and soon covered with thick down. 
Famity PELECANID/#. 
Not many genera have been separated and practically only one has been 
commonly recognised, but the Australian species should be generically differentiated, 
as it alone out of all the species in the world has the lores feathered. Other features 
of importance are mentioned in the generic definition below. 
Genus CATOPTROPELICANUS. 
Catoptropelicanus Reichenbach, Nat. Syst. Vogel, p. vit., 1852 (21853). Type (by original 
designation): C. perspicillatus = P. conspicillatus Temminck et Laugier. 
Large Pelecanine birds, characterised by their feathered lores. All other members 
of the family have the lores naked. 
The family is diagnosed by the huge bill with broad flattened upper mandible 
and immense gular pouch ; the birds are very large, heavily built, with Jong wings, 
medium neck, short tail, and short stout Jegs and feet. The bill is very long, broad 
and flattened ; the culminicorn consists of a flattened portion, continuous with the 
small sharply-hooked nail; the laterals are cleanly divided by a narrow groove, at 
the base of the culmen almost concealing the linear nostrils ; the laterals broaden 
and flatten past the middle ; the rami of the Jower mandible are vertical, thick and 
strong at the base, where they extend beyond the upper mandible edges, but becoming 
slender about the middle, where they are overlapped by the upper edges ; the nail 
is short and hooked; the interramal region develops a huge distensible naked 
pouch. The culmen is about two-thirds the length of the wing. The lores are 
feathered, but the eyes are surrounded by a bare patch : a breeding crest is assumed. 
The wings are long, the third primary Jongest, the fourth longer than the second, 
the first about equal to the fifth ; the wing-coverts long andlanceolate. The tail is 
short, wedge shaped, composed of twenty-two feathers, and is less than half the 
length of the culmen. The legs are short and stout, reticulate throughout, but the 
scales smaller on the back ; the metatarsus is more than half the length of the tail 
but less than one-third the length of the culmen. The toes are long, scutellate, the 
hind-toe long, the middle toe longest, all connected by webs. 
52. Catoptropelicanus conspicillatus.—PELICAN. 
Gould, Vol. VII., p. 74 (pt. xxrx.), Dec. Ist, 1847. Mathews, Vol. IV., pt. 3, pl. 233, June 
23rd, 1915. 
Pelecanus conspicillatus Temminck et Laugier, Planch. Color. d’Ois., 47¢ livr. (Vol. III, pl. 
276), (Vol. V., pl. 118), June 26th, 1824: New South Wales. 
Pelecanus australis Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., Vol. XIII., pt. 1., p. 113, Feb. 18th, 1826: 
New South Wales. 
Catoptropelicanus perspicillatus Reichenbach, Nat. Syst. Vogel, p. vil., 1852 (? 1853): New 
South Wales. 
Pelecanus conspicillatus westralis Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 244, Jan. 31st, 1912: 
Perth, West Australia. 
DistrisuTion.—Australia generally. Not Tasmania. 
