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“Observations on the Pelican vistting the 
“Gastern Hara,” 
By Scrore B. Doie, C.E. 
[ Note hy the Editor.—There is a great deal of useful detailed information in 
this old note of Mr Doig’s which it will be well to place on record, I have only 
to premise that Mr. Doig’s birds all belonged to two species—one P. evispus, 
and the other that species which, as [I pointed out some 14 years aco 
8. F., I, p. 128, Jerdon has in my opinion described under the three different 
names of mitratus, javanicus and onocrotalus. Whether our birds are 
really onocrotalus, or what name they should bear, I never could find out 
for want of proper European and African specimens with which to compare 
them, but there seems to me, and has always seemed to be, only one species 
in India of this type. Now that there are in the British Museum nearly 
100 specimens of this one species in all stages of plumage and from all parts 
of the empire, pretty well correctly sexed and in most cases. with the colors 
of the soft parts accurately recorled, this question ought soon to be (if it 
has not already been so) set at rest. | 
Tuts last cold weather I have, at Mr. Hume’s suggestion, 
devoted my spare time to investigating the different species 
of Pelican which visit these districts every year in thousands, 
and I now propose placing before the readers of ‘Stray Feathers” 
the results of my observations, with the hope that they may be 
of assistance in determining the different species which visit 
India. There are two distinct kinds of Pelican to be met with 
in these districts, and they are distinguishable one from the 
other at a glance by the termination of their frontal feathers 
on the culmen. In one species these end in a concave line, 
in the other in a point. To the latter species I have particularly 
directed my attention at Mr. Hume’s special request, but as 
I have from time to time shot a good many of the former, and 
at the same time preserved a few of their skins, I will proceed 
first to give a short sketch of my observations regarding them. 
At the first glance one would suppose there were two kinds 
of Pelican belonging to this species, riz.,a large silvery white 
Pelican and a large grey Pelican; but after shooting a goodly 
series I am satisfied that these are one and the same bird in 
ditferent stages of plumage. I am aware that two kinds of 
Pelican, both having their frontal feathers ending in a concave 
line, have been recorded from this province, viz., P. crispus 
and P. phinppensis, but as far as this district is concerned 
I have only come across one kind, which I conclude 
must be #. crispus, inasmuch as P. philippensis is stated 
to have a series of spots on each side of the mid-rib of 
upper mandible which none of my specimens possess. The 
