377 



PHALACROCORAX. CORMORANT. 



The Cormorants are birds of large or moderate size, hav- 

 ing the body elongated, rather full, depressed ; the neck long 

 and stout ; the head rather large, oblong, anteriorly narrowed. 

 The bill about the length of the head, straight, rather slender, 

 compressed, opening from far behind the eyes ; upper man- 

 dible with the dorsal line slightly declinate and somewhat 

 concave, then nearly direct, at the tip decurved, the ridge 

 broad and rounded, separated by a very narrow groove from 

 the sides, which are convex, erect, and irregularly scaly, with 

 a slender separate piece at the base; the edges sharp and 

 somewhat inclinate, the unguis narrow, convex, decurved, 

 thin-edged, but obtuse ; lower mandible with the angle very 

 long and narrow, the intercrural membrane partly bare, the 

 outline of the crura nearly straight, the dorsal line declinate, 

 the sides scaly, erect, and somewhat convex, the edges sharp 

 and inflexed, the tip compressed, obliquely truncate, formed 

 of an involute unguis, with a slender intercalated piece ; the 

 gape-hne ascending at the base, then straight, at the end 

 decurved. 



Mouth wide, and capable of being much dilated by the 

 flexibility of both mandibles toward the base, there being on 

 both a kind of joint on each side ; the palate flattened, with 

 two prominent ridges ; the posterior aperture of the nares 

 linear. Tongue extremely small, ovate-lanceolate, thin, 

 carriate above. (Esophagus extremely wide, contracting 

 considerably as it enters the thorax, then dilated into an 

 enormous sac ; its transverse muscular fibres very distinct, as 

 are the internal longitudinal, the inner coat when contracted 

 forming prominent longitudinal pHcae ; proventricular glands 

 arranged in two opposite round disks, sometimes, however, 

 forming a continuous belt, narrowed at two places. Stomach 



