A STUDY OP THE RECENT RELIC AITS, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OP NEW 
GENERA AND SPECIES. 
BY 
EDGAR ALEXANDER MEARNS 
Associate in Zoology, United States National Museum. 
The genus Pelecanus was created by Linnaeus gor tho p e 1 g o-a*ic in 
the year 1758 ; subsequently, the genera Onocrotaln s^, Cy rtopelicanus , 
^ Syst. Nat., 10th edition, Vol. I, 1758, a. 132 (type Pelecanu.s ono ¬ 
crot alus ) . 
s^This was simply a renaming, by Brisson, of the Linnaean genus Pele¬ 
canus, with Pelecanus onocrot alus for the type. 
Leptopelicanus , and Catop tropelieanus have been proposed and employed, 
as of generic or subgeneric rank, for species or groups of pelicans, 
x 
by various authors'; but in the most recent treatment of the Pamily 
v'Cf. R EICKENBACH , Naturl. Syst. Vo g., 1853, p. 7; E LLIOT . Proceed¬ 
ings of the Zoological Society of London, 1869, jjp. 571-591 (mono¬ 
graphic); RIDGWAY, Water Birds of North America, Vol. II, 1884, p.132 
Australia, Vol. IV, part 3, 1915, pp. 312-321. 
Pelecanidae , by Dr. Alphonse Dubois'^, all of the recognized forms, 
/ Wytsman , S Genera Avium, Part 7, 1907, pp. 1-4, pi. 
eleven in number, were placed in the genus Pelecanus, without the re¬ 
cognition of subgenera, all of the above names being treated as pure 
synonyms of Pelecanus Linnaeus. 
The writer finds it necessary to recognize six full genera of 
