TANTALUS LEUCOCEPHALUS. 



(THE PELICAN-IBIS.) 



Tantalus leucocephalus, Forst. Ind. Zool. p. 20 (1781); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 275 

 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. 'p. 115 ; Jerclon, B. of Ind. iii. 

 p. 761 (1864); Holdsw. P. Z. S.. 1872, p. 478; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 404; Hume, 

 Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 626 (1875); id. Str. Feath. 1879, p. 114 (List B. of Ind.) ; David 

 & Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 452 (1877). 



l)er weissJcopfige Ibis, Forster; Stork of Europeans in Ceylon; Brand-Gans, lit. "Fire- 

 Goose," Dutch in Ceylon. Dutch, Jaunghal, Hind. ; Janghir, Bengal. ; Lamjang, Sindh ; 

 Yerri Kali-konga, Telugu ; Shiga nareh, Tamils in India ; Changa vella nary, Tamils in 

 Ceylon [nary being the name for Stork). 



Datudmva, lit. " Sickle-bill," Sinhalese. 



Adult female (Ceylon). Length 40-0 inches ; wing 21-0 ; tail G-5 ; bare tibia 7 - 5 ; tarsus 7'75 ; middle toe 4-0, claw 

 scarcely projecting beyond it ; hind toe 1/7 ; bill to gape 8-2, at front from forehead 9 - 0. — Female (Sambhur). 

 Length 38 - inches ; wing 19-5, expanse 69 - 75 ; tail 6 - 2 ; tarsus 9-2 ; middle toe and claw 4" 7 (?) ; bill from 

 gape 9-2 (Adam). — Male (Furreedpore). Length 41-8 inches; wing 20-0; tail 6-25; tarsus 8-1 ; bill from gape 

 10-08 {Cripps). 



his yellowish grey, mottled with brown ; bill red ; naked skin of head, throat, and face orange ; legs and feet fleshy 

 red. Mr. Cripps states the iris to be " light brown," and Mr. Adam " pale brown." 



Head, face, and upper part of throat bare, the naked skin extending back as far as the nape and beyond the face to the 

 ear-coverts, passing down the throat to a point about 4 inches from the chin. Plumage glossy white, with the 

 exception of the tail, primaries, secondaries, underlying tertials, and scapulars, and all but the greater wing-coverts, 

 the entire under wing, axillaries, centre of the flanks, and a broad band across the breast, which are glossy black, 

 illumined with green ; the entire wing-coverts above and beneath and (he flanks and breast-band with broad 

 satiny white margins ; the greater wing-coverts tinged with rosy, as also the lower back and upper tad-coverts ; 

 terminal portion of the tertials fine rosy red, the barbs open, and the extreme tips satiny white ; the under tail- 

 coverts, which have the basal parts of the webs decomposed, and the barbs furnished with a supplementary web, 

 reach I h inch beyond the tail and are faintly tinged with rosy. 



Obs. S,iiiir examples are without the black band across the chest. One in the British Museum measures wing 19-5 

 inches, tarsus 8-5, bill to gape '■>''■>, and has the breast and all the wing-coverts and longest tertials completely white. 

 This plumage is apparently that of a fully-aged bird. Another (wing 21 '5 inches, tarsus 4-5, bill to gape 10-0) is 

 identical with a Ceylonese specimen. 



Foung (bird reared from the nest). Bill first of all black when the nestling is uufledged, and at about a month old 

 with a greenish tip, a few weeks after which the green advances up the bill aud the tip at the same time becomes 

 yellowish : iris brown ; legs and feet flesh-colour. 



The nestling is covered with brownish down at first ; and when fledged the head and throat are covered with feathers, 

 which, together with those of the neck, are brown ; the back and wing-coverts fine slate-grey, the latter with 

 whitish borders, and the tertials tinged with reddish from the very first. 



At six months, in a caged example, the iris was hazel ; bill dusky greenish, with about the terminal half yellow, 

 which colour rapidly encroached on the green; tarsi aud feet fleshy reddish. 



11 end and neck neutral brown, the feathers tipped pale, gradually paling into grey on the low^er neck, interscapular 

 region, scapulars, and back ; the scapulars and wing-coverts dark on their inner webs and towards the bases of 

 the feathers : lesser wing-coverts and under wdng dark iron-grey, margined pale (these feathers had been entirely 

 grey a short time previous, the centres first of all becoming dark, and that colour spreading over the feathers to 

 the edges); tertials silvery grey, wit li black shafts and dark bases, the outer webs overcast with rose-colour; quills 



