30 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Family PHALACROCORACIDAE 



PHALACROCORAX CARBO SINENSIS (Blumenbach) 



Chinese Cormorant 



Pelecanus sinensis Blumenbach, Abbildungen naturhistorischer Gegenstande, 

 Heft 3, 1798, pi. 25 and text (China). 



The Chinese cormorant is known from our area only along the Mae 

 Khong from Chiang Saen to Chiang Khong, where Delacour and 

 Greenway found it in small numbers (L/Oiseau et la Revue Frangaisc 

 d'Ornithologie, 1940, p. 25). It is not likely to occur on the smaller 

 rivers of the North. 



From the little cormorant this species may always be known by its 

 much greater size. The adult is black and in nuptial plumage has 

 white filaments upon the head and neck and a broad patch of white on 

 each flank. The immature bird has the upperparts brown and the 

 underparts largely white. 



PHALACROCORAX NIGER (Vieillot) 



Little Cormorant 



Eydrocorax niger Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., nouv. ed., vol. 8, 1817, p. 88 



(East Indies=Bengal, apud Peters). 

 Phalacrocorax javanicus, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 



1913, p. 71 (Mae Raem). 

 Phalacrocorax pygmaeus javanicus, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. 



Handl., 1916, p. 133 ("Northern Siam") ; Ibis, 1920, p. 775 ("Along the rivers 



and creeks of northern Siam"). 

 Phalacrocorax niger, Deignan, Journ. Siam. Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 172 



(Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 72 (Chiang Mai). 



All specimens of this bird are from the provinces of Chiang Mai 

 and Lampang, but it may be expected to occur at suitable places any- 

 where in our area at one season or another. At Chiang Mai it is a rare 

 visitor to the ponds and marshes from July to December, after which 

 month there is not enough water for its needs. During the cold 

 weather I have found it near Ban Tha Nong Luang and have collected 

 it on the Mae Klang, a mountain torrent, at the foot of Doi Ang Ka, 

 where it is seen regularly in winter. 



The little cormorant is rather an inactive species, perching quietly, 

 often with outspread wings, upon snags or stakes that jut out of the 

 water. On the Mae Klang it occurred in small flocks, which rested on 

 rocks and boulders in the stream for some hundreds of feet up the 

 mountain slope. It swims low in the water and is an expert diver. 



Cormorants are short-legged, long-necked waterfowl with a com- 

 paratively long, hooked bill. The adult of the present species has the 



