140 



TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS — STEGANOPODES. 



back, the smaller lesser wing-coverts, the ruiiip, and ujiper tail-coverts edged with dark snuff- 

 brown. Lower parts uniform dark brownish gray, the feathers of the sides, flanks, and crissum 

 streaked centrally with silvery white. Lining of the wing, and exterior border, snuff-brown, 

 streaked with silvery white. " Bill grayish white, tinged with brown, and marked with irregular 

 spots of pale carmine ; upper mandible dusky toward the end, lower blackish from the middle to 

 near the end ; bare space between the bill and eye deep blue; eyelids pink; iris white; feet 

 black ; gular pouch greenish black, the ridges of its wrinkles lighter" (Audubon). Adtdt, in 

 winter : Similar to the above, but head and neck wholly white, the head and lower part of the 



P. ficscus, summer plumage. 



foreneck usually tinged with straw-yellow. Young, first plumage : Head and neck light brownish 

 gray, lighter on the nape, the tips of the feathers paler ; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts dull 

 brown, the feathers tipped with light fulvous ; secondaries, tertials, and rectrices silvery gray, edged 

 with paler ; rump and upper tail-coverts similar. Lower parts white, the sides, flanks, and cris- 

 sum tinged with brownish gray. " Bill grayish blue, its edges and unguis grayish yellow ; gular 

 pouch dull grayish blue ; iris brownish yellow ; bare space around the eye dusky bluish ; feet and 

 claws dull lead-color" (Audubon). Young, in autunin: Similar to the adult, but head and neck 

 dull light ash-gray, the feathers bordering the base of the gular pouch white, the occiput dark 

 plumbeous or slaty, the feathers streaked centrally, or tipped with white. Upper parts less uniform 

 and more tinged with brownish than in the adult. 



Total length, about 44.00 to 56.00 inches ; extent 6.50 to 7.00 feet ; wing, 19.00-21.00 inches ; 

 culmen, 9.40-12.20 ; tarsus, 2.60-3.05 ; middle toe, 3.40-3.95. (Average of seven specimens, 19.79, 

 11.12, 2.84, 3.70.) 



It was supposed by Audubon and other earlier writers that the white-necked plumage, described 

 above as the winter dress of both sexes, represented the peculiar garb of the female. It is now 

 known, however, that both sexes assume this plumage after the breeding-season, there being at no 

 time any obvious difference between the male and female. (Cf. Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 

 1868, p. 268.) 



The Brown Pelican is more tropical in its residence and general distribution than 

 the white, and is chiefly restricted to the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States ; the 

 southern portion of California, Mexico, and Central America ; and South America. 

 It is accidental on the Atlantic coast farther north than the Carolinas. It has been 

 said to occur as far north as Nantucket ; but this has not been positively ascertained. 



This species was met with on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala by Mr. Salvin ; and 

 was found breeding on the Pacific coast,^ in the Bay of Fonseca, by Mr. G. C. Taylor, 

 who also found it very abundant both on the Atlantic and on the Pacific coast of 



' Accounts of the habits of Brown Pelicans found on the Pacific coast probably refer wholly to the suc- 

 ceeding species or race, P. californicus, the description of which was not written until this article had been 

 put in type. 



