NATATORES. 473 



[231.] 2. Pelecanus (Carbo) dilophus. (Sw.) Double-crested Corvorant. 



Family, Pelecanids, Swains. Genus, Pelecanus, Linn. Sub-genus,^) Carbo, Meyer, Temm. 

 Ch. Sp. Rectricibus duodecem, rostro 3^ uncias longo, crista post oculum utrumque. 

 Sp. Ch. Tail of twelve feathers ; bill three inches and a half long ; a crested tuft of feathers behind each eye. 



We cannot reconcile this bird with any of those described by Professor Tem- 

 minck or the Prince of Musignano, the only two ornithologists who have 

 accurately discriminated the northern species of this neglected group. By 

 having twelve instead of fourteen feathers in the tail, it is at once distinguished 

 from Carbo cormoranus, Temm. : the shortness of its tail separates it again from 

 C. graculus, Temm. Its crest, which is not " eleve sur le milieu du crane, entre 

 la distance desyeux*," prevents it from being confounded with C. cristatus : this 

 crest, moreover, is double. This latter circumstance, and its superior size, 

 distinguish it at once from C. pygmwus; while the account of the Pelecanus 

 Africanus, Linn., introduced by the Prince of Musignano into his Synopsis 

 (p. 404), is too vague and general to be applied to our species. Wc shall 

 not again attempt to unravel the synonymes of compilers, but merely add, that 

 our specimen is of an adult bird, in fine and matured plumage. — Sw. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a specimen, killed on the Saskatchewan, May, 1827. 



Form, typical. Middle toe strongly pectinated. The naked space on the sides of the 

 head is small ; it extends from the bill to the eye, which it hardly encircles ; it occupies a 

 narrow margin at the rictus, and then makes a curve downwards under the chin, which it 

 crosses, leaving a naked space three inches and a quarter in length, when measured to the 

 base of the gonys of the under mandible. Immediately behind the eye is a conspicuous 

 crest or tuft of narrow slender feathers, many of which are one inch and a quarter long. 

 The tail is moderate, of twelve feathers, each of which is graduated: lesser quills slightly 

 mucronated. 



Colour. — Bill blackish-brown. Orbits and naked skin round the chin yellow. Over the 

 eye is a line of white dots. General plumage, both above and below, deep bluish-black, glossed 

 with obscure green : this colour, as usual, is confined to the margins only of the feathers on 

 the upper part of the back, the lesser wing coverts, and the tertials, the middle of which are 

 light hair-brown ; quills much darker. Tail and feet (in the dried specimen) black. 



Dimensions. 



Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. 



Length, total, about . 33 Length of wing . 12 Length of tarsus . . 2 3£ 



„ of bill from angle of „ of middle tail feather 6 6 ,, of long toe and nail 4 ] 



the mouth . .36 „ of outer feather .49 „ of hind toe and nail 1 "J 



„ of bill from the front 2 1 



-Sw. 



Temminck, Manuel, Second Edit., ii., p. 900. 



3 P 



