OUR INDIAN PELICANS. 493 
Beavan’s collection, and appear undoubtedly different from our 
living P. rufescens.” 
Mr. Blyth says also that no one acquainted with the living 
birds could accede to Prof. Schlegel’s amalgamation of the three 
species. 
mC First there is the P. mitratus, Lichtenstein (as adopted by 
Dr. Jerdon, and also by Mr. G.R. Gray in the British Museum). 
This, as Dr. Jerdon remarks, is the P. onocrotalus of Bonaparte 
and Bree, and it is identical with the species so labelled in the 
Zoological Gardens. It hasa pendent occipital crest of straight 
and narrow feathers, and in the breeding season the forehead 
becomes much inflated; the naked skin of the cheeks is pale 
carneous, and that of the pouch very pale yellow. This race is 
not common in Bengal, according to my experience. I obtained 
one specimen, killed near Dacca, and saw one fine living adult in 
the menagerie of the Maharaja of Burdwan, when it was ac- 
companied by equally fine examples of the next race, all in 
thoroughly mature plumage; and I afterwards saw another 
adult in Calcutta, with Babu Rajendro Mullick. 
“The ordinary Bengal Pelican (P. onocrotalus, apud Jerdon, 
and also of the British Museum) has never any pendent occipi- 
tal feathers, but the crest is formed of loose and open tex- 
ture, not much elongated, and curling upwards. The forehead 
is never tumid, as in the preceding race; the bare skin of the 
cheeks is deep purplish or livid carneous, and that of the pouch 
intense bright yellow. Moreover, the feathers of the lower 
parts are conspicuously shorter, and more uniform, not so dis- 
tinct and lanceolate asin the other. A mature female mea- 
sured 5 ft. 6 in. in extreme length, and 8 ft. 10 in. in extent of 
wings; wing from wrist, 2 ft. 2in.; tail, 8 in.; bill to fore- 
head, 145in.; tarsi, 5°5 in. Another specimen had the bill to 
forehead 15:5 in., and the wing 27 in. In another the bill 
measured 16 inches. 
“A third race is the true P. javanicus, Horsfield, as correctly 
assigned by Dr. Jerdon, and as now identified from the type 
specimen in the Indian Museum, distinguished from the last by 
its inferior size. A male in very fine adult plumage measur- 
ed 4 ft. 8 in. in extreme length, and 7 ft. 10 in. in extert of 
wings ; wing from wrist, 1 ft. 11 in.; tail, 7 in.; bill to forehead, 
11 in. ; tarsi, 5in. In this individual the usual patch upon 
the breast characteristic of the breeding-season was deep and 
dark ferruginous, quite sufficiently like a blood stain to have 
given rise to the old supposition of the Pelican feeding its 
young from its own breast ! Dr. Jerdon considers this to be the 
most abundant of the white Pelicans that visit India. 
“ A fourth race is a similar diminutive of P. mitratus, which 
I take to be the Onocrotalus minor of Riippell. A specimen 
