24 l^KLEOANID^ PELECANUS 



and tail-feathers except at the ends and the broad shaft stripes to 

 the inner secondaries, all black ; the elongated and pointed middle 

 tail-feathers have black shafts and red webs. 



Iris black ; bill yellow ; legs yellow, becoming black on the webs 

 and toes. Length (including long tail feathers) about 33-0 ; tail 

 about 4-0; the long central feathers 19; wing 130; tarsus 1-25; 

 culmen 2-50. 



Distribution. — The Eed-tailed Tropic Bird is found throughout 

 the warmer portions of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It breeds 

 on Bound Island, near Mauritius. The only evidence yet obtained 

 of its occurrence along our shores is the finding of an apparently 

 freshly shed red tail feather on the beach at Port Elizabeth by 

 Mr. Eickard, as stated by Sharpe and Layard. Captain Turbyne, 

 however, of the Government Trawler S.S. Pieter Faure, recently 

 shot an undoubted example of this species off Mossel Bay, but, 

 owing to the high sea then prevailing, was unable to secure the 

 specimen. 



Phaethon lepturus and P. cBthereus both breed on Ascension, 

 the range of the former extending into the Indian and Pacific 

 Oceans, while that of the latter, so far as is known, does not reach 

 the Indian Ocean. It is possible that both these species may be 

 found as wanderers on the South African coasts. P. lepturus has 

 the basal portion of the mandible very dark horn colour, and a 

 white tail with black shafts, while P. cethcreus is a larger bird 

 (wing about 11'5), with a bright coral red bill, and the back and 

 most of the wing-coverts are transversely barred with black. 



Family V. PBLECANID^. 



The Pelicans are less purely marine birds than the members of 

 the other families of the order. The external characters are 

 enumerated in the description of the genus, to which may be added 

 the following anatomical peculiarities : seventeen cervical vertebrae ; 

 clavicle anchylosed to the sternum ; femorocaudal and semitendinosus 

 muscles present ; no syringeal muscles. 



Genus I. PELECANUS. 



Tyi^e. 

 Pelecanus, Linn., Syst. Nat. i, p. 215 (1766) P. onocrotalus. 



Bill long and flattened, the culmen forming a rounded ridge 

 and ending at the tip in a downwardly curved hook ; nostrils very 

 small and rudimentary at the base of the groove on each side of 



