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Show 1869.] MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON THE GENUS PELECANUS. 581 Occipital crest long and pendent, formed of narrow feathers. Frontal feathers fully as prolonged as in P. onocrotalus, forming a narrow line. General colour pure white. Occipital crest and patch on the breast yellowish. Spurious wing and primaries black. The gular pouch and bare space about the eye is almost precisely similar in shape to that of the preceding species, extending about the same distance down the throat. The bill is yellowish ; nail red. Orbits and pouch flesh-colour; irides reddish. Length about 55 inches ; wing, from carpal joint, 24 inches ; tail 7 inches; bill 12 inches; tarsus 5 inches. Hab. Sicily and Greece, Egypt, Abyssinia, west coast of Africa, and India. I have given to this bird, if it really must be considered distinct from the common species, Riippell's name oi minor, as his diagnosis and measurements appear to agree very accurately with specimens of mitratus before me, and his name antedates that of Lichtenstein. As I have already stated, in m y article on P. onocrotalus, the only difference between them is in the smaller size, occipital crest, and rather narrower point of the frontal feathers of the present bird. It may, however, be doubted if these characters are sufficient to establish it as a separate species, and it may with more propriety be considered only a race. I have included among the synonyms the P. onocrotalus of Bonaparte, as his description of " occipiti cristato plumis planis angustis" appears to apply to this bird. The fact that Bonaparte's synonymy of some of the Pelecanidee is very much confused, and that he has referred this bird to P. rufescens, which belongs to an entirely different group, that of which P. crispus is the type, shows that he did not make the necessary examinations of the specimens when writing his monograph, and that his conclusions cannot be taken solely upon the authority of his name. Layard, in his ' Birds of South Africa,' describes a Pelecanus onocrotalus, which he states to be widely distributed and associating in small flocks. His description would seem to point out the present bird rather than the species to which he has referred it, as he speaks of the presence on the breast of " a tuft of stiff bright straw-coloured feathers," and the "head crested," both of which peculiarities are claimed as appertaining to the present bird. His measurements also are less than generally found in P. onocrotalus; and moreover, having specimens before from the Cape of Good Hope which answer in every way to the P. minor, I have placed Mr. Layard's name among its synonyms. The Pelecanus mitratus of Reichenbach, represented by two figures, does not exhibit any pendent crest, but a short recurved crest upon the occiput; and this would seem to refer his bird to onocrotalus. I have therefore placed a question (?) after the synonym. PELECANUS JAVANICUS. Pelecanus javanicus, Horsf. Linn. Trans, vol. xiii. p. 197. sp. 2 ; Sclat. P. Z. S. (1868) p. 268; Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. xiii. p. 116 (1826). P. onocrotalus, apud Jerdon, Blyth, Ibis (1867), p. 179. |