In the year 1758 the naturalist Linnaeus gave to the birds called Pelicans the generic name Pelecanus. In this genus he also placed the cormorants and the gannets. These with the snake-birds, the frigate-birds and the tropic-birds were for a long time grouped together under the family name Pelecanidae. This name, however, is now restricted to the various species of the Pelicans which are included in a single genus.

The generic name Pelecanus and the common name Pelican are derived from pelekan, the Greek name for these birds. They were well known to the ancients by whom they were called Ornacrotalus. There is a legend of great antiquity for which there is no foundation in fact, which states that the pelican feeds to her young blood drawn from her own breast, in which she herself has made the incision.

There are about ten species of pelicans distributed throughout the world, mostly confined to those countries having warm climates. Two or three species, however, extend their range into the colder regions during the summer months. Three of the species inhabit North America and two of these are seldom seen except on the sea coasts; the brown pelican (Pelecanus fuscus) on, the Atlantic coast and the California brown pelican (Pelecanus californicus) on the Pacific coast. The other species is the bird of our illustration, and is common in the interior as well as on the seaboard of California.

The pelicans are notably social in their habits, a large number nesting together. The flight of a large flock is an attractive sight. Their wings move in unison and apparently without much effort. After a few strokes of the wings they frequently sail, forming graceful circles, often at great elevations.

The most remarkable characteristic of these birds, however, is the large pouch formed by an elastic skin depending from the two sides of the lower mandible and extending nearly the whole length of the bill. This pouch may be greatly distended and will hold a large quantity of either solid or liquid matter. The bills are depressed and strongly hooked.

The American White Pelican ranges throughout the whole of North America as far north, in the interior, as the 61^o north latitude, and as far to the southward in winter as Central America. Northward from Florida, along the Atlantic coast, it is now rare.

In the year 1838 Audubon gave this species the specific name Americanus, in view of his discovery that it differed in essential characteristics from the European form, called Ornacrotalus. The most marked difference that he noticed was the crest upon the upper mandible which he supposed was permanent and not, as we now know, a characteristic of this species only during the breeding season. In writing of the naming of this species he uses the following beautiful language: "In consequence of this discovery, I have honored it with the name of my beloved country, over the mighty streams of which may this splendid bird wander free and unmolested to the most distant times, as it has already done in the misty ages of unknown antiquity."

Much as we desire to honor Audubon who has given us so much of interest concerning the life histories of the birds, yet we are restrained by the rules of scientific naming, which require under ordinary circumstances, the use of the earliest name. Audubon's name was antedated by that of Gmelin, a German Naturalist, who in 1,788 noticing the peculiar characteristics of the American White Pelican and that it differed from the European form, gave it the name erythrorhynchos, which is now used by ornithologists. This name has its origin in two Greek words, meaning red and bill.