214 



BROWN PELICAN. 



Bill greyish-blue, its edges and unguis greyish-yellow ; gular pouch 

 dull greyish-blue. Iris brownish-yellow ; bare space around the eye of 

 a dusky bluish tint, the feathers margining it yellowish-white. The 

 feathers of the head and neck are less downy than in the adult, and 

 those on the sides of the latter less elongated or pointed. The head 

 and neck are dark brown, as are the upper parts generally ; the secon- 

 dary and many of the smaller coverts margined with pale brown ; the 

 primaries and their coverts as well as the tail-coverts brownish-black, 

 with white shafts. Feet and claws dull leaden colour. 



In an adult female preserved in spirits the general peculiarities of 

 the organization are the same as those described in the American White 

 Pelican. The mouth and the sac appended to the lower mandible pre- 

 sent the same appearances. The oesophagus, a b e, measured from the 

 articulation of the lower jaw to the 

 stomach properly so called, is 2 

 feet 2 inches long. At its com- 

 mencement, or opposite the tongue, 

 its width is about 5 inches ; it con- 

 tracts to the middle of the neck, 

 where it is about 2 inches ; at the 

 distance of 1 foot it becomes nar- 

 rowed to 1-g inch, and so continues 

 until it enters the thorax, when it 

 gradually enlarges, its diameter op- 

 posite the heart being 2 inches, and 

 at the proventriculus 2j\. Its mus- 

 cular coat is of moderate thickness, 

 and composed of transverse exter- 

 nal, and longitudinal internal fibres ; 

 its mucous coat is thrown into lon- 

 gitudinal plaits. The proventri- 

 cular glands are cylindrical, 3 

 twelfths in length, ^ twelfth in 

 breadth, and occupy a belt 3 inches 

 broad ; the inner surface of this 

 part is irregulai-ly and tortuously rugous. The stomach c d, is extremely 

 small, being as it were a slight sac appended to or terminating the oeso- 

 phagus, 1^ inch long, and of the same breadth at its upper part. It 



