PELECANUS. gl 



white shafts. (In life, eye surrounded by a broad white ring 

 of naked skin ; naked skin round base of bill, and gular sac 

 mixed red, white, and blue.) Length about 36.00; weight 

 about 12-14 lbs.; wing 13.00, tail 9.00, culmen 3.75. Sab. 

 Formerly, Bering Island, but now extinct there ; possibly still 

 existing in some of the westernmost Aleutian Islands. 



— . P. penicillatus Pall. Pallas's Cormorant. 



Family PELECANIDiE.— The Pelicans. (Page 73.) 



Genera. 

 (Characters same as for the Family) Pelecanus. (Page 81.) 



Gentjs PELECANUS Linnjeus. (Page 81, pi. XXL, figs. 1, 2.) 



Eggs 1-4, oval, ovate, or elongate-ovate, with rough chalky shell, pure white, 

 but usually much blood-stained. 



' Species. 



a 1 . Tail-feathers 24; lower jaw densely feathered; color white, with blackish 

 remiges. (Subgenus Cyrtopelicanus Eeich. 1 ) 

 Adult: Entirely white, with quills entirely black, the secondaries also 

 chiefly black. Nuptial plumage : Culmen with a median elevated horny 

 ridge, situated a little forward of the middle portion ; a pendent occipital 

 crest of white or pale straw-yellow ; lanceolate lesser wing-coverts and 

 similarly formed feathers of chest, pale straw-yellow, or, rarely, purplish 

 buff; pouch and bill chiefly reddish (in life), the former paler terminally ; 

 feet intense orange-red. Post-nuptial plumage : Similar in all respects to 

 the preceding, except that the appendage to culmen and the occipital 

 crest are wanting (having been shed), the latter replaced by a patch of 

 short grayish feathers. Winter adult : Plumage as in the preceding, but 

 gray occipital patch wanting, yellowish color of chest and lesser wing- 

 coverts paler, and colors of bill, face, pouch, and feet much less intense, 

 / a clear lemon-yellow being the prevailing tint. Young : Plumage white, 



but lesser wing-coverts and feathers of top of head brownish gray cen- 

 trally, chest-feathers short, blended, and pure white, the bill, pouch, face, 

 and feet pale yellowish. Length about 4£-nearly 6 feet, extent 8£- 

 nearly 10 feet, weight about 17 lbs, wing 20.00-25.25, culmen 11.05-15.00. 

 Nest a rude mound or heap of gravel and rubbish, flattened or slightly 

 hollowed on top, on beach or bench usually of island in some lake or large 



1 The typical subgenus (Pelecantts proper), having for its type the P. onocrotalue of southern Europe, is 

 not represented in America. 



11 



