PALMIPEDES. 369 
liarity—they are able to perch on trees. They all fly well and have short 
feet. Linneus separated them into three genera, the first of which it 
was necessary to subdivide. 
Pexecanus, Lin. 
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 ceca are moderate 
or small. 
Perrcanus*, Illig—Onocroratus, Briss. 
The bill of the true Pelicans is very remarkable for its extreme 
length, its straight, very broad and horizontaily 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, 186. (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 different changes this 
bird undergoes from age are not sufficiently ascertained to render 
certain the species of its genus that are enumerated}. 
Praracrocorax, Briss—Carezo, Meyer.—Hatievs, Illig. 
The Cormorants { 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 Truz Cormorants have a round tail composed of fourteen quills. 
* Pelecanus and Onocrotaius are two Greek names of this bird latinized. 
+ Isee no difference between the Common Pelican and the Pelec. roseus, Sonner. 
Prem. Voy. pl. liv. As to the Pelec. manillensis, Id. LIII, Sonnerat himself says he 
thinks it is the young of the rosexs. Neither can I find any difference between the 
fuscus, Edw. 93, and that of the Pl. 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, pl. lvi, is the same specimen from which 
the P!. Enl. 965 was taken, so that both are the young of the onocrotalus. That of 
pl. 957, also called fuscus, appears to be really a species identical with that of Vieill. 
Gall. 276.—Add the Pel. @ lunettes, (P. perspicillatus, T.) Col. 276. 
t 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 German name 
Scharb. To all these names Vieillot has added that of Hydrocorax, Gal. 275. 
VOL. I. GG 
