962 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — STEGANOPODES. 



iridescent with green, purple, and violet tints, commonly uniform on head, neck, and under 

 parts, but on back and wing-coverts, where the feathers are sharp-edged and distinct, the shade 

 is more apt to be coppery or bronzy, each feather with well-defined darker border. This con- 

 cerns, however, only the adult plumage, which is the same in both sexes ; the young are plain 

 brownish or blackish. Cormorants have other special featherings, generally of a temporary 

 character, assumed at the breeding season and lost soon after ; these are curious long filament- 

 ous feathers (considered by Nitzsch filoplumaceous), on head and neck, and even, in some 

 eases, on upper and under parts too. These feathers are commonly M'hite, as is also a large 

 silky flank-patch acquired by several species. Some Cormorants are also crested with ordinary 

 long slender feathers ; the crest is often double, and when so, the two crests may be either one 

 on each side of head, or they may follow each other on middle line of hind head and nape. 

 Our species illustrate all these various featherings. The naked parts about the head vary with 

 the species and afford good characters, especially considering shape of the pouch ; the skin is 

 usually brightly colored, sometimes carunculate. Eyes, as a rule, green — a color not com- 

 mon among birds. These birds are highly psilopsedic as well as altricial ; the young are for 

 some time blind, naked, and perfectly helpless. 



Thirty-five species of Cormorants may be considered established. Their study is difficult, 

 owing to great changes in plumage, high normal variability in size, and close inter-relation, 

 which is such that the single genus Phalacrocorax does not appear capable of well-founded 

 division. Species are found all over the world, excepting the uttermost polar regions, and are 

 usually very abundant in individuals ; they are all very much alike in their habits. Many are 

 maritime, but others range over fresh waters as well. They are eminently gregarious, espe- 

 cially in the breeding season, when they congregate by thousands — the boreal kinds generally 

 on rock-begirt coasts and islands, those of warm countries in the dense fringes of shrubbery. 

 They often migrate in large serried ranks. The nest is rude and bulky ; the eggs are com- 

 monly 2-3, but may be 4-5 or more, elliptical, pale greenish, overlaid with white chalky 

 substance. Cormorants feed principally upon fish, and their voracity is proverbial, though 

 probably no greater than that of allied birds. Under some circumstances they show an intelli- 

 gent docility ; witness their semi-domestication by the Chinese, who train them to fish for their 

 masters, a close collar being slipped around the neck to prevent them from swallowing the 

 booty. Inquisitiveness is another trait of Cormorants. These ugly, ungainly, and untidy 

 birds have provoked various poets to uncomplimentary remarks, since Milton's comparison of 

 Satan thereto in Paradise Lost, iv, 192 ; but Newton makes the more sensible suggestion that 

 a lot of Cormorants sunning themselves look like a row of black bottles. Longfellow notes 

 the flight in these fine lines : 



" As with his wings aslant, 

 Sails the fierce Cormorant, 

 Seeking some rocky haunt 

 With his prey laden." 



PHALACRO'CORAX. (Gr. (^oKaKpoKopa^, phalakroTcorax ; Lat. phalacrocorax, a cormo- 

 rant, sea-crow, corvus marinus : (j)aXaKp6s, phalakros, bald, and Kopa^, korax, a raven.) 

 Cormorants. Shags. Character as above said. There appears to be but one genus in the 

 family, but several groups of species may be cited subgenerically. There are five such groups 

 among our species, respectively exemplified by P. carbo, P. dilophus, P. mexicanus, P. peni- 

 cillatus, and P. pelagicus ; a sixth is represented by the extinct P. perspicillatus. 



Analysis of Subgenera, Species, and Subspecies. {Adults in breeding plumage.) 



Tail of 14 feathers. Crested. {&uhgeaua Phalacrocorax.) 



Gular sac heart-shaped, bordered with white feathers. Atlantic coast carbo 



Tail of 12 feathers. Crested or crestless. 



Gular sac convex or nearly straight-edged behind. Lateral crests of curly plumes on each side of head. (Sub- 

 genus Dilopkalieus.) 



