PELECANUS. 81 



white shafts. (In life, eye surrounded by a broad white ring 

 of naked skin ; naked skin round base of bill, and gular sac, 

 mixed red, white, and blue.) Length about 36.00 ; weight 

 about 12-14 Ibs. ; wing 13.00, tail 9.00, culmen 3.75. Hab. 

 Formerly, Bering Island, but now extinct there ; possibly still 

 existing in some of the westernmost Aleutian Islands. 



. P. perspicillatus PALL. Pallas's Cormorant. 



FAMILY PELECANID^E. THE PELICANS. (Page 73.) 



Genera. 

 (Characters same as for the Family) Pelecanus. (Page 81.) 



GENUS PELECANUS LINN.EUS. (Page 81, pi. XXI., figs. 1, 2.) 



Eggs 1-4, oval, ovate, or elongate-ovate, with rough chalky shell, pure white, 

 but usually much blood-stained. 



Species. 



a 1 . Tail-feathers 24; lower jaw densely feathered; color white, with blackish 

 remiges. (Subgenus Cyrtopelicanus EEicn. 1 ) 



Adult: Entirely white, with quills entirely black, the secondaries also 

 chiefly black. Nuptial plumage : Culmen with a median elevated horny 

 ridge, situated a little forward of the middle portion ; a pendent occipital 

 crest of white or pale straw-yellow ; lanceolate lesser wing-coverts and 

 similarly formed feathers of chest, pale straw-yellow, or, rarely, purplish 

 buff; pouch and bill chiefly reddish (in life), the former paler terminally ; 

 feet intense orange-red. Post-nuptial plumage : Similar in all respects to 

 the preceding, except that the appendage to culmen and the occipital 

 crest are wanting (having been shed), the latter replaced by a patch of 

 short grayish feathers. Winter adult : Plumage as in the preceding, but 

 gray occipital patch wanting, yellowish color of chest and lesser wing- 

 coverts paler, and colors of bill, face, pouch, and feet much less intense, 

 a clear lemon-yellow being the prevailing tint. Young : Plumage white, 

 but lesser wing-coverts and feathers of top of head brownish gray cen- 

 trally, chest-feathers short, blended, and pure white, the bill, pouch, face, 

 and feet pale yellowish. Length about 4J-nearly 6 feet, extent 8$- 

 nearly 10 feet, weight about 17 Ibs, wing 20.00-25.25, culmen 11.05-15.00. 

 Nest a rude mound or heap of gravel and rubbish, flattened or slightly 

 hollowed on top, on beach or bench usually of island in some lake or large 



1 The typical subgenus (Pelecanus proper), having for its type the P. onocrotalus of southern Europe, is 

 not represented in America. 



11 



