144 STTLEDiE. 



Ptil. nupt. crista ocdpitali et nuchali ; area praepectorali pallide flava ; tecfcricibus minime flavo lavatis ; culmine 



comu osseo ornato. 

 Juv. adultis similis, sed tectricibus minoribus bmnneis, albido marginatis. 



3ab. North America, north in the interior to about lat. 61°, along the Gulf coast 

 and on the coast of California 3. — Mexico, Rio Mazatlan {Grayson^), Guanajuato, 

 Guadalajara (Duges *), Valley of Mexico (Herrera ^, Sumichrast ^^), San Mateo ^, 

 Orizaba 12 (Sumichrast); Guatemala [Skinner^), Mazatenango (Bernoulli ^^), 

 Huamachal (0. -S.s ">). 



This species appears to be only a winter visitor to Central America, chiefly along the 

 Pacific coast. Grayson says that it is occasionally seen in large numbers on the Rio 

 Mazatlan, where it does not long remain, and Salvin met with a huge flock of at least 

 a thousand in Guatemala, on the lagoons of Huamachal. 



The American White Pelican soars like a Vulture, while the common P.fuscus does 

 not, to our knowledge, do more than skim the surface of the waves. When in pursuit 

 of prey, we observed that they never flew more than twenty or thirty yards from where 

 they rose, while the noise they made when dashing into the water could be heard at a great 

 distance, and the surface would be lashed into foam where many plunged in together. 



The nest is described by Mr. Eidgway as merely a heap of earth and gravel raked 

 into a pile and slightly hollowed, about six or eight inches high and twenty broad. 

 The eggs are two, rarely three, in number, of a dull chalky-white colour. 



Fam. SULID^. 



The Gannets are birds of extensive distribution, being found in nearly every temperate 

 and tropical ocean. 



The osteological features of the family are given by Mr. Pycraft in his diagnosis 

 contributed to volume xxvi. of the ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum ' : — 

 " Palatines fused in the middle line, with a slight median keel ; a well-marked nasal 

 hinge; postorbital process emarginate. Greater part of the carina sterni and the 

 region of the sternum bearing the coracoid grooves produced far forward beyond 

 the anterior lateral process of the sternum." 



Mr. Ogilvie Grant, in the same volume, gives the external characters, which we have 

 reproduced below under the heading of the genus 8ula. 



SULA. 

 Sula, Brisson, Om. vi. p. 494 (1760) ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 423 (1898). 



One genus only of this family is acknowledged by Mr. Ogilvie Grant, from whose work 

 we adopt the characters here given : — " Bill stout, subcylindrical, and pointed, tapering 

 gradually towards the extremity, which is very slightly curved, but never hooked; a 

 linear groove on each side of the culmen ; nostrils completely fused in adults ; cutting- 



