Oedee STEGANOPODES. 



Supeifamily PHALACROCORACOIDEiE. 



FAMILY PHALACEOCOEACID^. 

 84. Phalacrocorax perspicillatus Paxl. 



1826. — Phalacrocorax perspicillatus Pall., Zoogr. Eoss. As., II, p. 305. — Gould, Zool. 



kSulphur, p. 49, pi. xxxii (1844). — Taczan., Orn. Faun. Vost. Sibir., p. 66 



(1877).— Id., Bull. Soc. Zool. Frauce, 1877, p. 41.— Stejneger, Pr. U. S. Nat. 



Mus., 1883, p. 65. 

 18.50. — Graculus urile Reichenb., Natat. Novit., iil xvii, figs. 2311 and2312 (mecGMEL.) 



(Cf. BoNAP., Cousp. Av., I, p. 168, and A. B. Meyek, ludex Eeichenb., p. 44 ; 



no uame on tbc plate !) 



Wlieu Steller was wrecked on Bering Island .in 1741 lie found this 

 species very numerous.* 



It lias now been totally exterminated on the island, and I have nothing 

 to add to what I have said in my preliminary report concerning this 

 species (Pr. U. S. IS-dt Mus., 1883, p. 05) : " It is not to be doubted that 

 the Phalacrocorax perspicillatus does not occur on the islands at present- 

 The natives, however, remember very well the time when it was plenti- 

 ful on the rocks, especially on the outlying islet Aij Kamen. About 

 thirty years ago, they say, the last ones were seen, and the reason they 

 give why this bird has become exterminated is that it was killed in great 

 numbers for food. They unanimously assert that it has not been seen 

 since, and they only laughed when I offered a very high reward for a 

 specimen." 



If the stupidity of the bird has caused its extermination on Bering 

 Island within a hundred years of its discovery — being in every respect a 

 fitting analogue to the history of the extermination of the great north- 

 ern Sea cow {Bytina gigas) — very little probability exists that it should 

 have escaped the fate of this sluggish mammal. There is a bare possi- 



* Hauc speciem Stellerus nusquam nisi in Beringii iufausta insula, ubi naufragus 

 vixit, observaverat. Copiosissimi ibi sunt, nunquam tameu Camtschatca) littora 

 adeunt. Uti magnitudiue, ita et stolitalu congeuercs superant, quumque carne sua 

 tres facile fainelicos una iuipleat, uiagno naufragis solatio fuere. (Pall., Zoogr., 1. c.) 



180 



