Page:Cassell's book of birds (IA cassellsbookofbi04breh).pdf/267

 THE GREAT TUFTED OR DALMATIAN PELICAN.

The or  (Pelecanus crispus) is white, slightly tinged with greyish red, except upon the quills, which are black. In this species, the head-feathers are long and curly, forming a sort of helmet. The eye is silvery white, beak greyish yellow, bag beneath the throat blood-red veined with blue, and the foot black. The plumage of the young is greyish. The length of this bird is sixty-six inches, breadth one hundred and fourteen inches, the length of wing thirty inches, and tail eight inches. The habitat of the Great Tufted Pelican extends from the Black Sea over all the well-watered districts of Central and Southern Asia; a few penetrate annually into South China and North Africa, but in both these regions they are comparatively of rare occurrence.

The first example known of this bird was shot in 1828 in Dalmatia by Baron Fildegg, and it has been since found by Rüppell and Kittlitz in Abyssinia.

"It arrives," says the baron, "in spring and autumn, giving preference to the neighbourhood of Fort Opus, on the river Naronta, which is bordered with morasses. It comes through Bosnia, seldom alone, but generally in flocks. I have seen as many as twelve together hunting for fish. It is very cunning, and is extremely difficult to shoot."

No particulars are known respecting its habits, nidification, &c., which are supposed to resemble others of its family.