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Show 588 MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON THE GENUS PELECANUS. [Nov. 25, are white, with a few faint blotches of pale blue. The shell is thick and rough. The young are covered with down of a creamy colour, and are fed by their parents, at first with fish well macerated, but after they acquire more strength it is given to them entire. The flight of this bird is rather heavy, but well sustained, and they proceed by regular flappings and sailings. It is fond in warm, calm weather of rising high in the air, which is accomplished by wide circles, and then sailing for a considerable length of time. Their evolutions at such times are very beautiful. The flesh of this bird is tough and fishy, unfit for food, although the negroes are accustomed to eat the young. There is no difficulty in the synonymy of this species. PELECANUS MOLINAE. (Plate XLIV.) Pelecanus thagus, Steph. Gen. Zool. vol. xiii. p. 117; Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 577(1788); Molina, Chil. p. 212?; Gay, Hist. Chili, Zool. vol. l. p. 494; Bonnat. Ency. Meth. Ornith. (1790) p. 46 ; Donnd. Ornith. Beitr. vol. ii. pt. 1, p. 859. sp. 30. Onocrotalus thagus, Bon. Consp. Gen. Av. vol. ii. p. 164 (1851?). O. rostro denticulato, Briss. Orn. vol. vi. p. 523 A. Pelican a bee dentele, Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois. 8. p. 309. Onocrotalus hernandezii, Wagl. Isis (1832), p. 1233. sp. 1. O. mexicanus dentatus, Raii Syn. p. 127. Saw-billed Pelican, Lath. Syn. vol. iii. pt. 2, p. 579 A. Pelecanus molinee, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. (1849) ; Sclat. Proc. Zool. Soc. (1868) p. 269. Hab. South America! As it is exceedingly uncertain what bird Molina meant when he wrote his description of Pelecanus thagus, and as it will not answer for any bird known to ornithologists at the present day, his name must become a synonym (although a doubtful one) of the present species, for which I have adopted the appellation bestowed upon it by Mr. Gray. It is evidently a very near ally of the more northern P. fuscus, differing chiefly in its larger size. Beside the two specimens in the British Museum, there is one immature in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and one in the Paris Museum. PELECANUS ERYTHRORHYNCHUS. Rough-billed Pelican, Lath. Syn. vol. ii. (1785) p. 586. Pelecanus erythrorhynchus, Gmel. Syst. Nat. (1/88) vol. i. p. 571 ; Bonnat. Ency. Meth. Ornith. (1791) p. 44. P. trachyrhynchos, Lath. Ind. Ornith. p. 884. sp. 8 ; Gray, Gen. of Birds (1845), p. 309; Lichten. Abhandl. Akad. Wiss. Berl. (1838) t. 3. fig. 5; Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. xiii. (1825) pt. 1, p. 117. Cryptoqjelicanus trachyrhynchus, Bon. Consp. Av. vol. ii. (1865) p. 163. |