OUR INDIAN PELICANS. 501 
and all but the longest scapulars, pale brown, broadly centred 
with silver grey; the whole of the lesser and median and 
secondary greater coverts pale brown; tail, secondaries and 
longest scapulars slightly darker brown, much_ overlaid 
with silver grey; primaries and greater coverts a dingy hair 
brown ; the whole back, rump and upper tail-coverts dull white ; 
the feathers of the rump tinged brownish and darker shafted, 
the whole lower parts mottled dull white and pale ferruginous, 
except about the vent and lower tail-coverts, where the feathers 
are so broadly tinged with dull ferruginous as to leave no 
white mottling visible; the whole wing-lining and axillaries 
white. 
I think this ferruginous mottling so very conspicuous in this 
bird, though abnormally developed in the specimen described, 
as to be traced about the breast and lower tail-coverts in almost 
all my young individuals. It is very faint indeed in some, 
but is still 1 think always traceable. 
These Pelicans do breed in India, though I have never been 
able to obtain the eggs. Dr. Jerdon mentions a Pelicanry in 
the Deccan, and Dr. Short in epist. mentions their breeding in 
the village of PullaGoora Pully about 48 miles north-east of 
Cuddapah, and also in another village, about 70 miles north-east 
of Cuddapah, the name of which he does not tell me. I do not 
think the eggs or nestlings of this species have ever yet been 
carefully described, and I should be much obliged for specimens 
of these, or indeed of any Pelican, in regard to which the sexes 
and dates of killing have been accurately recorded. There 
is a good deal yet to be done in clearing up the changes 
of plumage of the Indian birds of this group. 
P.S.—P. rufescens is clearly distinct from P. philip- 
pensis, An Abyssinian female, collected by Blanford, has the 
wing 20°25 ; bill at front, 12.45; its greatest width, 1°5 ; tarsus, 
3°5 ; mid toe and claw, 4°6. The plumage of the head and neck 
is of quite a different character. The irregular curly mane 
(for it is scarcely a true crest) of philippensis is replaced by 
a full crest, nearly four inches in length, of straight narrow 
feathers, the webs of which are a good deal disunited. The 
feathers of the rest of the head and neck are, as compared with 
philippensis, regular or close-sitting. The upper mandible 
wants the double row of impressed spots, a/ways present in 
philippensis, and is less compressed towards the base than in 
this species. It also appears to have a distinct frontal groove 
on the culmen near the base. 
P.P.S.—I examined the museum specimens. One specimen, 
numbered 1741, labelled P. javanicus on the stand, and with 
a label attached to the wing—“ P. onocrotalus, Bengal—” has 
no crest and bears no signs of breeding plumage. It has the 
