68 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
The adult in breeding plumage differs from the winter adult mainly in the clear black 
and more glossy plumage and the presence on each side of the head of a tuft of narrow, 
slender, black feathers. The winter adult has the entire under parts black, as also the 
rump, tail, and head and neck all around; the back and upper surface of the wings light 
brown, each feather margined with black; bare skin of the gular pouch orange in summer, 
yellowish at other times. The tail has but twelve feathers. Immature birds have no 
glossy black at all, but are gray, brownish-gray or brown, darker above and lighter below, 
but always known by the peculiar, hooked bill, fully webbed feet and long stiff tail with 
twelve feathers. Length of adult 29 to 34 inches; wing, 12 to 13; tail, 6 to 6.50; bill, 2 to 
2.50. 
Family 13. PELECANIDA.—Pelicans. 
KEY TO SPECIES. 
A. Twenty-four tail-feathers; lower jaw feathered, plumage of body en- 
tirely white or with yellow on chest.—White Pelican. No. 28. 
AA. Twenty-two tail feathers, lower jaw naked, plumage of body mixed 
brown, gray and white.—Brown Pelican. No. 29. 
28. White Pelican. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmel. (125) 
Synonyms: Common Pelican (of the north).—Pelecanus trachyrhynchos, Lath., 1790. 
—P. onocrotalus, Bonap., Nutt.—P. americanus, Aud. 
A nearly white bird with black wing-tips and an expanse of eight or 
ten feet can hardly be mistaken for anything else; and when this is coupled 
with the possession of fully webbed feet and a bill at least a foot long 
with leathery pouch below the bill there is no possibility of mistake. 
Distribution.—Temperate North America, north in the interior to about 
latitude 61°, south in winter to western Mexico and Guatemala; now rare 
or accidental in the northeastern states; abundant in the interior and 
along the Gulf coast; common on the coast of California. 
This bird is little more than a straggler in Michigan, yet there are many 
authentic records, and the bird is such a large and remarkable one that 
when captured the specimens have been preserved in most cases. It is 
a well known species in the Mississippi Valley and the lakes of the Great 
Plains region, and nests abundantly, and usually in colonies, in Manitoba 
and other parts of British North America. There is no record of its nesting 
in Michigan nor any likelihood that it has ever done so. It most often 
occurs here in pairs or small squads, seldom more than four or five being 
seen together. The following are the records I have collected: Clam 
Lake, Wexford county, April, 1892 (Covert); Whitmore Lake, Washtenaw 
county, October 4, 1878, and Lake Wade, July, 1879 (Covert); Sarnia 
Bay, opposite Port Huron, no date (Hazelwood); Detroit River, July, 
1902 (Swales); Detour, Chippewa county, fall of 1894, and another in 
Hay Lake, St. Mary’s River, earlier in the same year (Boies) ; two specimens 
in the Broas collection at Belding, without data, but probably taken in 
that vicinity (Barrows); Monroe, about 1882, mounted by B. J. Savage 
of Monroe (Savage was with the man who shot it and says it was one of four 
which were seen and followed from place to place for several hours) (Bar- 
rows); three killed in the vicinity of Marquette, and mounted by F. H. 
W. Bailey of that city, the last one killed near Baraga in the spring of 
