47'2 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[230.] 1. Pelecanus onocrotalus. (Linn.) White Pelecan. 



Genus, Pelecanus, Linn. 



Pelecanus onocrotalus, var. Forst. Phil. Trans., lxii. 

 Great Pelecan. Pens. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 578, No. 505. 

 Pelecanus onocrotalus. Bonap. <%»., p. 400, No. 351. 



Pelecans are numerous in the interior of the fur-countries up to the sixty-first 

 parallel ; but they seldom come within two hundred miles of Hudson's Bay. 

 They deposit their eggs usually on small rocky islands, on the brink of cascades, 

 where they can scarcely be approached ; but they are otherwise by no means 

 shy birds. They fly low and heavily, usually in flocks of from six to fourteen, 

 sometimes abreast, at other times in an oblique line ; and they often pass close 

 over a building, or within a few yards of a party of men, without exhibiting any 

 signs of fear. They haunt eddies under waterfalls, and devour great quantities 

 of carp and other fish. When gorged with food, they doze on the water, and may 

 be easily captured, as they have great difficulty in taking wing at such times, 

 particularly if their pouches be loaded with fish. Though they can perch on 

 trees, they are most generally seen either on the wing or swimming. Some 

 specimens, apparently in mature plumage, have the bill quite smooth above ; 

 but individuals have a long thin bony process, about two inches high, springing 

 from the ridge of the upper mandible. Similar processes existed in the specimens 

 commented upon by Pennant and Forster, which were brought from Hudson's 

 Bay ; but no such appearances have been described as occurring on the bills of 

 the White Pelecans of the Old Continent. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a specimen, killed on the Missmippi, lat. 56°. 



Colour, white, tinged with peach-blossom-red ; breast yellowish ; bastard wing and quills 

 black. Bill bluish, the margins and unguis reddish. Naked skin round the eye and base 

 of the upper mandible, and the feet, flesh-coloured ; sub-maxillary pouch yellow. 



Form. — The hind head is crested ; the sub-maxillary pouch is large, and is distended 

 when the mouth is opened by the elasticity of the rami of the os hyoides. Neck covered 

 with down. Second quill the longest ; first considerably longer than the fifth. Middle nail 

 entire. Total length six feet. — R- 



