966 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — STEGANOPODES. 



inside; eggs ordinarily 3-4, 2.55 X 1-55, laid in June. Food largely consisting of a species 

 of rock-cod (Sebastodes paucispinis). 



(Subgenus Pallasicarbo.) 



P. perspicilla'tus. (Quasi-Lat. perspieillatus, wearing spectacles.) Spectacled Cor- 

 morant. Pallas' Cormorant. Tail of 12 (not 14) feathers. Adult in breeding plumage : 

 Deep lustrous green above and below, with blue gloss on neck and rich purplish on scapulars 

 and wing-coverts, where the individual feathers are black-edged. Shafts of tail-feathers mostly 

 white on upper side — a unique character among our species. Large median coronal and 

 occipital crests (not lateral paired crests), glossy black. Head and neck with long sparse 

 straw-yellow plumes. A white flank-patch. Feet black ; bill blackish ; sac orange, heart- 

 shaped ; bare parts of face mixed red, blue, and white, the latter color surrounding the eyes 

 like a pair of spectacles. Changes of plumage unknown. Very large; weight 12-14 lbs.; 

 length 36.00-39.00; wing 13.25; tail 7.50; tarsus 2.50; gape 4.00; bill very stout, and dis- 

 tance from feathers of forehead to tip 3.50. This was a very bulky, heavy Cormorant, with 

 comparatively short wings, tail, and feet, discovered on Bering's Island by Steller in 1741. 

 Known living for little more than a century, then becoming extinct, soon after the Great Auk 

 did, probably about 1852. Four or five specimens are known to exist — two in St. Peters- 

 burg, one in Leyden, two in the British Museum ; a few bones are in the U. S. National 

 Museum at Washington. Pall. Zoog. R. A. ii, 1811, p. 305, from Steller; Gould, Voy. 

 Sulphur, 1844, p. 49, pi. 32; Elliot, B. N. Am. ii, 1869, pi. 50. For history, etc., see 

 especially Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. vi, 1883, p. 65; x, 1887, p. 138; xii, 1889, pp. 83-94, 

 pll. 2-4; xviii, 1895, p. 717, pll. 34, 35. The bird is questionably the Red-faced Shag of 

 Latham, Pelecanus urile Gm., at least in part. It has been given as North American in 

 all our systematic works since Lavs^r. in Bd. B. N. A. 1858, p. 877 ; Coues, Key, 1872, 

 p. 304 ; 2d-4th eds. 1884-90, p. 728; Ridgw. Man. 1887, p. 81 ; but is relegated to A. 0. U. 

 Hypothetical List. 1886-95, No. 7. 



(Subgenus Urile.) 



P. bicrista'tus. (Lat. bic.ristatus, twice crested; bis, twice; crista, crest.) Red-faced 

 Cormorant. Violet Shag. Urile (Russian name). Tail of 12 feathers, as usual in the 

 genus. Face bare. Two median crests. Adult (^ 9 i i^ breeding plumage : Frontal feathers 

 not reaching base of culmen ; bill entirely surrounded by naked red or orange skin which also 

 surrounds the eyes, and is somewhat carunculate, forming a kind of wattle on each side of 

 chin ; feathering of side of under mandible also restricted ; base of under mandible blue ; sac 

 blue, becoming livid reddish behind. Crown with a median bronze-black crest, and nape with 

 another, in same line; few if any white plumes on neck; a large white flank-patch. Plu- 

 mage richly iridescent, mostly shining green, but violet and steel-blue on neck, purplish, 

 violet, and bronzy on back, and wings, the individual feathers there without definite dark 

 edgings. Adults out of season lack the white plumes and flank-patches, but are usually if not 

 always crested. Length 33.00; extent 48.00; wing 11.00-12.00; tail 7.00-8.00; culmen 

 2.25 ; gape 3.00 ; tarsus 2.97. Young : Rather smaller than old birds. Face less bare. 

 Plumage dark brown, darker and more glossy above than below. Nestlings are covered with 

 dark gray down. North Pacific; Kamtschatka, S. in winter to the Kuriles and Japan; 

 Alaska, resident, both on the coast and islands. It swarms on the Seal Islands of Bering Sea, 

 nests on rocky cliff's, and has habits in all respects like those of most other species. Eggs 3-4, 

 2.50 X 1.50. This is the Red-feced Cormorant of Pennant, but Pelecanus urile Gm. is not 

 exclusively pertinent, and the name had better be avoided. I therefore make no change from 

 former editions of the Key. P. bicristatus Pall. Zoog. R. A. ii, 1811, p. 183; Coues, Key, 



