PELECANUS CONSPICILLATUS, Temm.

Australian Pelican.

Pelecanus conspicillatus, ‘Temm. Pl. Col., 276.—List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll., part iii. p. 189.
Ne-rim-ba, Aborigines in the neighbourhood of Perth.
Boo-dee-lung, Aborigines near the Murray.

 

Or the members of the genus Pe/ecanus the present may be regarded as one of the very finest species; in size
it fully equals its European prototypes the P. Onocrotalus and P. crispus, and although devoid of crest-plumes,
this ornament is fully compensated for by the varied markings of the face and mandibles ; no one species
of Pelican would be more ornamental to the aviary, and it is very surprising that living examples should not
long ere this have been introduced into Europe. It is so abundant in all the rivers and inlets of the sea,
both in Van Diemen’s Land and on the continent of Australia, that it is one of the very commonest of the
large birds of those countries. I possess specimens shot by myself on Green Island in D’Entrecasteaux’
Channel, and I also met with it in abundance in South Port River: owing to the advance of colonization
it is now scarce in the Derwent and Tamar, but it still breeds on the small group called Stanner’s Bay
Islands, lying off the south-western end of Flinders’ Island in Bass’s Straits. In Australia it is very common
on the Hunter as well as in Spencer’s and St. Vincent’s Gulfs, and on all the waters of the interior, such
as the Mokai, Namoi, &c., and on all lakes of sufficient magnitude to afford it a supply of food, consisting
principally of fish. So numerous 1s it on these inland waters, that Captain Sturt states that the channel
of a river from seventy to eighty yards broad was literally covered with Pelicans ; and that they were
in such numbers upon the Darling as to be quite dazzling to the eye.

The nest is a large structure of sticks and grassy herbage, placed just above high-water mark ; the eggs
are generally two in number, of a dirty yellowish white, three inches and three-quarters long by two inches
and three-eighths broad.

The entire plumage white, with the exception of the scapularies, a line along the edge of the shoulder,
the lower row of the greater wing-coverts, the primaries, secondaries, a few of the upper tail-coverts and
the tail, which are black ; on the breast a pale wash of sulphur-yellow ; gular pouch and mandibles yellowish
white, the latter stained with blue, which gradually increases in depth to the tip; apical half of the cutting
edges of the mandibles yellow, gradually increasing in depth to the tip; nail of both mandibles greenish
yellow; irides dark brown ; eyelash indigo-blue ; orbits pale sulphur-yellow, bounded by a narrow ring of
pale indigo-blue ; legs and upper part of the tarsi yellowish white ; feet, webs and lower part of the tarsi
pale bluish grey, the two colours blending with each other at the middle of the tarsi; nails dull yellowish
white.

The figure rather more than one-fourth of the natural size.

Chuallancatel Lith

   

A brould and Mt bachter deh sh lith,