TANTALUS LEUCOCEPH ALUS. 
(THE PELICAN-IBIS.) 
Tantalus leucocephalus, Forst. Ind. Zool. p. 20 (1781); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 2/5 
(1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 115 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. 
p. 761 (1864); Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 478; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 404; Hume, 
Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 626 (1875); id. Str. Feath. 1879, p. 114 (List B. of Ind.) ; David 
& Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 452 (1877). 
J)er weisskbjpfige Ibis , Forster; Stork of Europeans in Ceylon; Brand-Gans, lit. “Fire- 
Goose,” Dutch in Ceylon. JDokh, Jaunghal, Hind. ; Janghir, Bengal. ; Lamjang, Sindh ; 
Yerri Kali-konga, Telugu ; Sing a nareli, Tamils in India; Changa vella nary, Tamils in 
Ceylon ( nary being the name for Stork). 
Datuduwa, lit. “ Sickle-bill,” Sinhalese. 
Adult female (Ceylon). Length 40'0 inches ; wing 21*0 ; tail 6 - 5 ; bare tibia 7 - 5 ; tarsus 7'75 ; middle toe 4'0, claw 
scarcely projecting beyond it ; hind toe 1-7 ; bill to gape 8-2, at front from forehead 9-0. — Female (Sambhur). 
Length 38'0 inches ; wing 19-5, expanse 69 '75 ; tail 6-2 ; tarsus 9-2 ; middle toe and claw 4'7 (?) ; bill from 
gape 9-2 {Adam). — Male (Furreedpore). Length 41-8 inches ; wing 20-0 ; tail 6-25 ; tarsus 8-1 ; bill from gape 
10 - 08 ( Cripps). 
Iris yellowish grey, mottled with brown ; bill red ; naked skin of head, throat, and face orange ; legs and feet fleshy 
red. Mr, Cripps states the iris to be “ light brown,” and Mr. Adam “ pale brown.” 
Head, face, and upper part of throat bare, the naked skin extending back as far as the nape and beyond the face to the 
ear-coverts, passing down the throat to a point about 4 inches from the chin. Plumage glossy white, with the 
exception of the tail, primaries, secondaries, underlying tertials, and scapulars, and all but the greater wing-coverts, 
the entire under wing, axillaries, centre of the flanks, and a broad band across the breast, which are glossy black, 
illumined with green ; the entire wing-coverts above and beneath and the flanks and breast-band with broad 
satiny white margins ; the greater wing-coverts tinged with rosy, as also the lower back and upper tail-coverts ; 
terminal portion of the tertials fine rosy red, the barbs open, and the extreme tips satiny white ; the under tail- 
coverts, which have the basal parts of the webs decomposed, and the barbs furnished with a supplementary web, 
reach 11 inch beyond the tail and are faintly tinged with rosy. 
Ohs. Some examples are without the black band across the chest. One in the British Museum measures wing 19 - 5 
inches, tarsus 8'5, bill to gape 9'9, and has the breast and all the wing-coverts and longest tertials completely white. 
This plumage is apparently that of a fully-aged bird. Another (wing 21 - 5 inches, tarsus 4-5, bill to gape 1O0) is 
identical with a Ceylonese specimen. 
Young (bird reared from the nest). Bill first of all black when the nestling is unfledged, and at about a month old 
with a greenish tip, a few weeks after which the green advances up the bill and the tip at the same time becomes 
yellowish ; iris brown ; legs and feet flesh-colour. 
The nestling is covered with brownish down at first ; and when fledged the head and throat are covered with feathers, 
which, together with those of the neck, are brown ; the back and wing-coverts fine slate-grey, the latter with 
whitish borders, and the tertials tinged with reddish from the very first. 
At suv months, in a caged example, the iris was hazel ; bill dusky greenish, with about the terminal half yellow, 
which colour rapidly encroached on the green ; tarsi and feet fleshy reddish. 
Head and neck neutral brown, the feathers tipped pale, gradually paling into grey on the lower neck, interscapular 
region, scapulars, and back ; the scapulars and wing-coverts dark on their inner webs and towards the bases of 
the feathers ; lesser wing-coverts and under wing dark iron-grey, margined pale (these feathers had been entirely 
grey a short time previous, the centres first of all becoming dark, and that colour spreading over the feathers to 
the edges) ; tertials silvery grey, with black shafts and dark bases, the outer webs overcast with rose-colour ; quills 
