Genus— CATOPTROPELICANUS. 
Catoptropelicanus Reichenbacli, Nat. Syst. 
Vogel, p. vii., 1852 . , . . . . . . Type C. conspicillatus. 
Large Pelecanine birds, characterised by their feathered lores. AU other 
members of the Family have the lores naked. 
The Family is diagnosed by the huge bill with broad flattened upper 
mandible and immense gular pouch ; the birds are very large, heavily built, 
with long wings, medium neck, short tail, and short stout legs and feet. 
The bill is very long, broad and flattened : the culminicorn consists of a 
flattened portion, continuous with the small sharply-hooked nail ; the 
laterals are cleanly divided by a narrow* groove, at the base of the culmen 
almost concealing the linear nostrils ; the laterals broaden and flatten past 
the middle ; the rami of the lower mandible are vertical, thick and strong at 
the base, where they extend beyond the upper mandible edges, but becoming 
slender about the middle, where they are overlapped by the upper edges ; 
the nail is short and hooked ; the interramal region develops a huge distensible 
naked pouch. 
The culmen is about two-thirds the length of the wing. The lores are 
feathered, but the eyes are surrounded by a bare patch : a breeding-crest 
is assumed. 
The wings are long, the third primary longest, the fourth longer 
than the second, the first about equal to the fifth ; the wing-coverts long 
and lanceolate. 
The tail is short, wedge-shaped, composed of twenty-two feathers, and 
is less than half the length of the culmen. 
The legs are short and stout, reticulate throughout, but the scales 
smaller on the back ; the metatarsus is more than half the length of the tail 
but less than one-third the length of the culmen. 
The toes are long, scutellate, the hind toe long, the middle toe longest, all 
connected by webs. 
In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXVI., Ogilvie- 
Grant admitted a Family Pelecanidce, covering the genus Pelecanus only. The 
main reason for this classification was the size of the birds and the few 
species existent. Otherwise characters of good generic value were recognisable. 
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