300 PELECANID^, PELICANS. GEN. 274. 



comb or crest, the use of which is not kaiown. It is supposed to be a weapon of 

 attack or defence in the combats that occur at the breeding season between rival 

 males, being found only in this sex, and during the breeding season alone. It 

 appears to be shed and renewed in a manner analogous to the casting of deer's 

 horns — a remarkable circumstance fii-st noticed, I believe, bj^ Mr. Eidgway. , Its 

 structure explains how this can be: "The crest-like excrescence on the ridge of 

 the upper mandible is not formed of bone, nor otherwise connected with the osseous 

 surface, which is smooth and continuous beneath it, than by being placed iipo-n it, 

 like any other part of the skin ; and when softened by immersion in a liquid may 

 be bent a little to either side. It is composed internally of erect slender plates of 

 a fibrous texture, externally of horny fibres, which are erect on the sides, and 

 longitudinal on the broadened ridge ; these fibres being continuous with the cutis 

 and cuticle" (Aitdubon). 



Pelicans are found in most temperate and tropical countries, both coastwise and 

 inland ; they are gregarious birds at all times, and gather in immense troops to 

 breed. A large rude nest is prepared on the ground, or built of sticks in a low bush 

 near the water ; the eggs appear to be one to three, plain dull whitish, with a thick 

 roughened shell. The gait of these cumbersome birds is awkward and constrained ; 

 but their flight is easy, firm and protracted, and they swim lightly and gracefully, 

 buoj'cd up by the interior air-sacs. The sexes are alike ; the young different ; most 

 species are white, with yellow or rosy hue at times, and a crest or lengthened 

 feathers, at the breeding season ; while nearly every one of them has a peculiar 

 contour of the feathering at the base of the bill, by which it maj' be known. There 

 are only six unquestionable species, although some authors admit eight or nine. 

 The four exotic ones are : P. onocrotalus of Europe, Asia and Africa (including 

 the P. minor and javanicus of authors), with the frontal feathers extending in a 

 point on the culmen ; P. crispus of the same countries, the largest of the genus, 

 and P. rufescens (with pMUppinus) of various parts of the Old World, in both of 

 which the frontal outline is concave on the base of the culmen ; and, finally, the 

 Australian P. conspicillatiis, in which a strip of feathers cuts oflF the naked circum- 

 ocular region from the base of the bill. This is an entirelj^ peculiar feature ; and 

 our white pelican shows another, having the sides of the under mandible feathered 

 at base for a short distance. Excellent accounts of the genus have been given by 

 Dr. Sclater and Mr. Elliot (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, 264, and 1869, 571). 



, 274. Genus PELECANUS Linnaeus. . 



^' ^ AmericanWMte Pelican. White; occiput and breast yellow ; primaries, 

 their coverts, bastard quills, and many secondaries, black ; bill, sac, lores 

 and feet yellow. About 5 feet long ; expanse 7-9 ; wing 2 ; bill 1 or more ; 

 tail i, normally 24-feathered. N. Am. ; N. to 61°; very abundant in the 

 west; only accidental in the Middle and Eastern States. Rich, and Sw., 

 F. B.-A., ii, 472; Nutt., ii, 471; Aud., vii, 20, pi. 422; Lawe. in Bd., 



868 TKACHTRHYNCHUS. 



■ '^ Broion Pelican. Dark-colored, variegated ; neck of the adult mostly 



J [reddish-brown, head mostly white ; bill dark, varied with red ; sac blackish ; 



feet black; rather smaller than the last; tail normally 22-feathcred. 



S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts aud California, abundant, strictly maritime. 



Nutt., ii, 476; Aud., vii, 32, pis. 423, 424; Lawr. in Bd., 870. fuscus. 



