THE PELICAN IBIS. 267 



Length 32 inches, tail 6' 5, wing 16' 5, tarsus 5 '7, bill from gape 6. The 

 female is of the same size. 



The Shell-Ibis is said by Mr. Blyth to occur in Arrakan, and I procured 

 one specimen at Thayetmyo in the Pegu Division. 



It is found over the whole peninsula of India and Ceylon. Dr. Tiraud 

 states that it is common in Cochin China, and it probably therefore in- 

 habits the whole of the In do-Burmese countries. 



The remarkable bill of this Ibis will cause it always to be easily recog- 

 nized, the two mandibles failing to meet in the middle and a large space 

 being left between them. It occurs in flocks, frequenting marshes and 

 paddy-fields, and feeding on shells, which are held in the space between the 

 mandibles and crushed. It breeds in India in the rains, July and August, 

 in large societies, making a nest of sticks in high trees and laying from 

 two to five white eggs. 



Subfamily TANTALINJE. 



Genus TANTALUS, Linn. 



631. TANTALUS LEUCOCEPHALUS. 

 THE PELICAN IBIS. 



Tantalus leucocephalus, Penn. in Forst. 2nd. Zool p. 20, pi. 10 ; Gm. Syst. Nat. 

 i. p. 649 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 761 j Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 626 ; BL B. Burm. 

 p. 158 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 452 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 484 ; Cripps, 

 S. F. vii. p. 309 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 114; Neivton, S. F.v\\\. p. 415; Legge, 

 Birds Ceylon, p. 1100 ; Gates, S. F. x. p. 244. 



Description. Male and female. Head, neck and the whole body white ; 

 the head naked to about an inch behind the eyes ; the feathers of the head 

 and neck short and downy ; the rump and scapulars tinged with roseate ; 

 the under wing-coverts, the lesser upper wing-coverts and a broad band 

 across the upper part of the abdomen black, each feather edged or tipped 

 with white ; primaries and their coverts, secondaries, winglet and tail black 

 glossed with violet ; greater wing-coverts pure white, those nearest the 

 body tinged with red ; tertiaries pink, varying in intensity in different in- 

 dividuals according to age and season. 



The young birds have the cheeks and ear-coverts grey ; the head and 

 neck brown ; the feathers short, soft and pointed ; lower plumage smoky 

 white, darker across the abdomen and darker still on the sides of the body; 

 back, scapulars, wing-coverts and tertiaries hair-brown ; rump and upper 



