PELICAN. 71 



Adult male (in breeding -plumage}. Head and neck all round, entire under - 

 surface, middle of back, upper and under wing-coverts white ; the small coverts 

 along the inner margin of the wing black, median and greater upper wing-coverts 

 also black with white on the outer webs of the greater series ; bastard-wing, primary- 

 coverts and quills black, some of the secondaries white at the base ; scapulars 

 black, extreme basal portion white ; sides of the rump and some of the upper tail- 

 Co verts black ; tail-feathers black, white only at the extreme base ; nuchal crest 

 more or less greyish-brown ; a few of the under wing -coverts black, others partially 

 black and white ; ornamental feathers on the fore-neck well developed. Bill, 

 culmen flesh colour, grooves and tip and sides of upper and lower mandible 

 slate-blue, nail of upper mandible greenish -horn colour, pouch pale flesh colour ; 

 eyes dark brown, eyelids deep indigo-blue ; feet light slate colour. Total length 

 1,620 mm. ; culmen 464, wing 653, tail 180, tarsus 126. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 



Immature. Differs from the adult in having the dark portions of the upper- 

 surface brown instead of black. 



Nestling. Naked, skin fleshy -pink. 



Nest. A slight depression in the ground ; placed in colonies. 



Eggs. Clutch, two ; white and chalky ; surface uneven and glossless ; axis 

 87-94 mm., diameter 56-58. 



Breeding -season. July to November. 



Distribution and forms. Australia generally, but not extra-limital. Two sub- 

 species have been named : C. c. conspicillatus Temminck and Laugier, from East 

 Australia and C. c. westralis Mathews, from West Australia, on account of its smaller 

 size throughout, but no long series are available. 



SUPERPAMILY SULOIDEA. 



The limits of this superfamily are coequal with those of the family, which 

 consists of large seabirds with powerful conical bills in which in the adult no nasal 

 openings are visible ; a small gular pouch is present, the neck short and stout, the 

 tail long and regularly wedge shaped, the legs short but the toes long. They are 

 all stoutly built birds, generally breeding in colonies on isolated rocks and islands 

 throughout the tropics, a few species ranging into the temperate zones, both north 

 and south. 



In the skull the palate is desmognathous, the nasals holorhinal and basipterygoid 

 processes absent ; the lachrymal differs from those of the preceding, the nasal hinge 

 pronounced . The cervical vertebrae are eighteen in number, the dorsals opisthocoelous, 

 hypapophyses present according to one authority, absent according to another. 

 The sternum and furcula are similar to those of the preceding. The carotids are 

 one or two, and the syrinx is different from those of the foregoing ; the leg muscle 

 formula is AX + while the biceps slip is sometimes present and sometimes absent. 

 The oil gland is tufted with two orifices, the aftershaft apparently absent, and the 

 wing aquincubital. The pterylosis has not been critically studied, and the nestling 

 is born naked and later covered with thick down. 



FAMILY SULID.E. 



All the forms of Gannet were referred to one genus until recently, and the exact 

 number of genera recognisable is at present in suspense. The four we here admit 

 are definitely separable and easily defined as will be seen by the descriptions given. 

 Their relationships and suggested phylogeny have been fully discussed by Mathews 

 and are simply indicated below in connection with the genera. 



