PALMIPEDES. 369 



liarity — they are able to perch on trees. They all fly well and have short 

 feet. Linnaeus separated them into three genera, the first of which it 

 was necessary to subdivide. 



Pelecanus, L'm. 



The Pelicans comprise all those in which the base of the bill is found 

 to have some part destitute of feathers. Their nostrils are fissures, the 

 apertures of which are scarcely perceptible. The skin of their throat is 

 more or less extensible, and their tongue very small. Their thin gizzard, 

 with their other stomachs, forms a large sac. Their cseca are moderate 

 or small. 



Pelecanus*, Illuj. — Onocrotalus, Briss. 



The bill of the true Pelicans is very remarkable for its extreme 

 length, its straight, very broad and horizontally flattened form, for the 

 hook which terminates it, and for the lower mandible whose flexible 

 branches sustain a naked membrane, susceptible of being dilated into a 

 large sac. Two grooves extend along its length, in which the nostrils 

 are concealed. The circumference of the eye is naked, and the tail 

 round. 



P. onocrotalus, L.; Enl, 87; Edw. 92; Frisch, 18G. (The 

 Common Pelican). As large as a Swan, entirely white; slightly 

 tinged with flesh colour; the hook of the bill of a cherry-red; is 

 more or less disseminated throughout the eastern continent, builds 

 in marshes, and feeds exclusively on living fish. It is said to 

 transport both food and water in its sac. The diff'erent changes this 

 bird undergoes from age are not sufficiently ascertained to render 

 certain the species of its genus that are enumerated f. 



Phalacrocorax, Briss. — Carbo, Meyer. — Halieus, Illig. 



The Cormorants I have an elongated and compressed bill, the end of 

 the upper mandible hooked, and that of the lower one truncated; the 

 tongue is very small, and the skin of the throat less dilatable ; the nos- 

 trils resemble a small unpierced line, and the nail of the middle toe is 

 notched like a saw. 



The True Cormorants have a round tail composed of fourteen quills. 



* Pelecanus and Onocrotalus are two Greek names of this bird latinized. 



f I see no difference between the Common Pelican and the Pelec. roseus, Sonner. 

 Prem. Voy. pi. liv. As to the Pelec. manilknsis, Id. LIII, Sonnerat himself says he 

 thinks it is the young of the roseus. Neither can I find any difference between the 

 fuscus, Edw. 93, and that of the PI. Enl. 965, called roseus, but which is much more 

 like the manillensis. Temminck thinks this figure represents the young of the com- 

 mon species. The philippensis, Briss., VI, pi. Ivi, is the same specimen from which 

 the PI. Enl. 965 was taken, so that both are the young of the onocrotalus. That of 

 pi. 957, also called fuscus, appears to be really a species identical with that of Vieill. 

 Gall. 276.— Add the Pel. a lunettes, {P. perspicillatus, T.) Col. 276. 



X Cormorant, from Cormoran, a corruption of Corbeau marin, on account of its 

 black colour. It is in fact the Aquatic Crow of Aristotle, Phalacrocorax {Bald Crow) 

 is the Greek name of this bird, indicated by Pliny, but is not employed by Aristotle. 

 That of Carbo is only used by Albert, who perhaps derived it from the Gemian name 

 Scharb. To all tliese names Vieillot has added that of Hydrocora.r, Gal. 275. 



