134 



TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS — STEGANOPODES. 



Bill cbiofly orange, paler on the cuhuen, the nails and edges of the maxilla and mandible more 

 reddish ; mandible deeper red than the maxilla, growing almost brick-red basally ; pouch dirty- 

 whitish anteriorly, where suffused with blackish, passing successively through yellow and orange 

 into intense dragon's-blood, or brick-red, at the base ; lower edge of the mandible sometimes black- 



P. erythrorhynchos, h-eedingdress. 



ish, and side of the mandible sometimes marked, nearly opposite the maxillary crest, with a some- 

 what quadrate black spot ; bare skin of the lores and orbital region rich orange-yellow ; eyelids 

 dark-reddish ; iris pearl-white ; legs and feet intense orange-red.^ Adult, during latter part of the 

 breeding-season: Similar to the above, but maxillary excrescence wanting (having been cast), and 

 the nuchal crest replaced by a patch of brownish gray. Adult, in fall and winter ; Similar to 

 the last, but no grayish patch on the occiput (crest also absent), the bill and feet clear j'ellow. 

 Young : Similar to the winter adult, but lesser wing-coverts brownish gray centrally, the pileum 



similarly marked ; jugular feathers 

 short and broad, and pure white, 

 like the other feathers of the lower 

 surface ; bill, pouch, and feet pale 

 yellow. 



Total length, about 62.00 inches ; 

 extent, 8.50-9,00 feet ; wing, 22 

 .25-25.25 inches ; culmen, 11.30 

 -13.85 ; tarsus, 4.30-4,65 ; middle 

 toe, 3,70-4.25,2 Weight of adult, 

 about 17 pounds. 



Individual variation, both in 

 size and in the details of colora- 

 tion, is very considerable in this 

 species. Most descriptions of the 

 perfectly adult bird say that the 

 plumage is tinged with peach-blos- 

 som pink ; but in only a single 

 example among the very large 

 number examined by us (includ- 

 ing both skins and freshly killed 

 birds) was the faintest trace of this 

 color visible, and that confined to a few feathers of the back. The straw-yellow color of the 

 narrow jugular feathers and lesser wing-coverts, however, seems to be always a characteristic of the 



A maxillary crest of rather exceptional reyulwrity. 



^ Taken from specimens freshly killed, in May, at Pyramid Lake, Nevada ; the iris is said to he 

 sometimes hazel. 



2 The average of a series of eight adult examples is as follows : Wing, 23.55 inches ; culmen, 12.62 ; 

 tarsus, 4.50 ; middle toe, 3.98. 



