THE PELICAN IBIS. 
267 
Length 32 inches^ tail 6*5, wing 16-5, tarsus 5*7, bill from gape 6. The 
female is of the same size. 
The Shell-Ibis is said by Mr. Blyth to occur in Arrakan, and I procured 
one specimen at Thayetmyo in the Pegu Division. 
It is found over the whole peninsula of India and Ceylon. Dr. Tiraud 
states that it is common in Cochin China^ and it probably therefore in- 
habits the whole of the In do-Burmese countries. 
The remarkable bill of this Ibis will cause it always to be easily recog- 
nized^ the two mandibles failing to meet in the middle and a large space 
being left between them. It occurs in flocks^ frequenting marshes and 
paddy-fields, and feeding on shells^ which are held in the space between the 
mandibles and crushed. It breeds in India in the rains_, July and August_, 
in large societies^ making a nest of sticks in high trees and laying from 
two to five white eggs. 
Subfamily TANTALIN^. 
Genus TANTALUS, Linn. 
631. TANTALUS LEUCOCEPHALUS. 
THE PELICAN IBIS. 
Tantalus leucocephalus, Penn. in Forst. Ind. Zool p. 20, pi. 10 ; Gm. Syst, Nat. 
i. p. 649 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 761 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 626 Bl. B. Burm. 
p. 158 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 452 ; Jluine SfDav. S. F. vi. p. 484 ; Cripps, 
S. F. vii. p. 309 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 114; Ne^vton, S. i^.viii. p. 415 ; Legge, 
Birds Ceijlon, p. 1100 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 244. 
Description. — Male and female. Head^ neck and the whole body white ; 
the head naked to about an inch behind the eyes ; the feathers of the head 
and neck short and downy ; the rump and scapulars tinged with roseate; 
the under wing-coverts_, the lesser upper wing-coverts and a broad band 
across the upper part of the abdomen blacky each feather edged or tipped 
with white ; primaries and their cover ts_, secondaries^ winglet and tail black 
glossed with violet ; greater wing-coverts pure white, those nearest the 
body tinged with red ; tertiaries pink, varying in intensity in diflPerent in- 
dividuals according to age and season. 
The young birds have the cheeks and ear-coverts grey ; the head and 
neck brown ; the feathers short, soft and pointed ; lower plumage smoky 
white, darker across the abdomen and darker still on the sides of the body; 
back, scapulars, wing- coverts and tertiaries hair-brown ; rump and upper 
