Resides constantly on and about the Florida Keys, where it breeds in vast numbers on trees. Ranges over the Gulf of Mexico, Bays of Texas, but rarely seen to the eastward of North Carolina.
Tachypetes Aquilus, Bonap. Syn. p. 406.
Frigate Pelican, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 491.
Frigate Pelican. Tachypetes Aquilis, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 495; v. v. p. 684.
GENUS IV. PELECANUS, Linn. PELICAN.
Bill about thrice the length of the head, rather slender, almost straight, depressed; upper mandible linear, depressed, convex at the base, gradually flattened, and a little enlarged to near the end, when it narrows, and terminates in a hooked point; ridge broad and convex at the base, gradually narrowed and flattened beyond the middle, separated by a groove from the sides, erect at the base, sloping toward the edges, edges very acute, with an internal groove; lower mandible with the angle excessively long, extending to the unguis, the sides erect and convex, the edges thin and involute, the tip decurved. Nostrils basal, lateral, linear, concealed by the wrinkles of the skin. Head small, oblong; neck long, stout; body full, rather flattened. Feet short, and very stout; tarsus short, compressed, covered all round with hexagonal scales; toes in the same plane, all connected by webs, first shortest, fourth longer than third. Claws short, strong, curved, that of the third toe pectinate. Feathers of head and neck exceedingly small, slender, downy; of the other parts generally lanceolate and acuminate; wings very long, rather narrow, rounded; primaries much curved. Tail short, broad, rounded, of more than sixteen feathers. An enormous bare, extensile, gular sac; tongue extremely small, papilliform; œsophagus excessively wide; proventricular glands arranged in broad longitudinal series; stomach very small, with its muscular coat thin, its epithelium smooth and soft; a globular pyloric lobe; intestine long and narrow; cœca very small, cylindrical; cloaca globular.
423. 1. Pelecanus Americanus, Aud. American White Pelican.
Plate CCCXI. Male.
Bill with an erect crest on the ridge, and with the gular pouch and feet bright yellow; plumage white; elongated feathers on the occiput and breast pale yellow, with which also the smaller wing-coverts are tinged; alula, primary coverts, primary quills, and outer secondaries, black, with white shafts, inner ten secondaries white; tail of twenty-four feathers. Female generally without the horny crest, otherwise similar.
Male, 613/4, 103; bill, 133/4.
Common during winter from Texas to South Carolina, both along the coast, and about the lakes and rivers adjoining Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers. Breeds from California northward, to Lat. 61°. Accidental in the Middle Atlantic Districts.