pelecanid^e. 855 



occiput with a very small crest of the same kind as the feathers 

 on the neck, short and close ; rump and tail white ; the feathers 

 of the back and wing-coverts short and rounded, all the feathers 

 white-shafted. Lichtenstein however states, with reference to this 

 point, that in females these feathers are always more round- 

 ed than in the males, and that moreover the tuft or crest is 

 smaller. 



Bill reddish at the base, yellowish towards the point, with a 

 crimson central line extending to the tip ; nude orbits fleshy ; 

 pouch yellowish mixed with red and purple ; irides brown or 

 grey ; legs and feet livid fleshy with a tinge of yellow. Length of 

 a specimen in the Museum of the Asiatic Society 5 feet 8 inches ; 

 wing 28 ; tail 8 ; bill 15^ ; tarsus A.\ ; middle toe and claw 5£. The 

 bill is said to be above 16 inches occasionally. Shaw and Latham 

 both give the expanse as 15 feet, but that is evidently erroneous. 

 Weight 25 lbs. (Pallas.) 



This bird certainly appears to be the true onocrotalus of 

 Linnaeus and the older authors. All describe the crest as very 

 small and Shaw's figure corresponds exactly with the specimen in 

 the Asiatic Society's Museum from India, and one lately received 

 from Hungary as true onocrotalus does not differ. Pallas cor- 

 rectly says that the feathers of the neck are small, and soft, and 

 that those at the nape are a little longer, forming a sub-crest. He 

 however gives smaller dimensions than those above. 



Lichtenstein, in his paper in the Transact. Royal Academy 

 of Berlin for 1838, states that "the cheek feathers are broad and 

 rounded, and that those of hind head are very small short feathers, 

 collected together into a small tuft which, in young birds, or 

 in adults by abrasion, are often scarcely perceptible." In the 

 specimens examined the feathers of the neck are open, flimsy 

 and downy, slightly curving upwards near the occiput where they 

 form a small, slightly recurved tuft. 



Bree in his Birds of Europe figures, apparently, the crested 

 Pelican, P. mitratus of Lichtenstein, as onocrotalus ; and Blyth also 

 considered the fully-crested bird to be the common European species. 

 I see however that Gurney, in a paper on the Birds of Africa, 

 recognises P, mitratus as a distinct species. 



