1. rilALACROCORAX. 345 



feathers of the throat forming a wide white border to the naked 

 gular pouch ; upper back, scapulars, and wing-coverts dull bronze- 

 brown, each feather widely bordered with dark bluish green ; quills 

 brownish black with a slight greenish gloss, secondaries more 

 strongly washed with greenish and margined externally with 

 darker colour ; a large patch of white feathers on each flank. 

 Tail black, and composed of 14 feathers. Total length about 

 36 inches, culmen 2'3-3-2, wing 12'5-14, tail 6*8-7"2, tarsus 

 2-3-2-85. 



Iris bright emerald-green ; naked skin round eye greenish 

 brown, below the eye and on gular sac lemon-yellow. Bill 

 greyish brown, dusky along culmen and yellowish white towards 

 the base ; logs and feet blackish. 



Adult in non-hreeding pZioncfY/e. Similar to the above ; but the 

 white hair-like feathers on the head and neck are wanting, as well 

 as the white ])atches on the flanks. 



This species appears to breed, in diflerent parts of its range, 

 throughout the entire year, for w^e have specimens in full breeding- 

 plumage procured in nearly every month. 



In Great Britain, the perfect breeding-plumage is generally 

 assumed by the end of February and lasts till the beginning of 

 April. In Sikhim we find birds in perfect breeding-plumage in the 

 months of January, February, March, August, and December ; 

 while in Pegu they breed in November. In British birds the 

 white hair-like feathers of the head and neck and the white 

 flank-patches begin to make their appearance early in January, and 

 are generally complete towards the end of February. The former 

 are retained until the beginning of April, when they commence to 

 drop out, and disappear entirely by the middle of May. The white 

 flank-i^atches are retained till the middle of June and do not dis- 

 appear till the end of July. 



The various changes of plumage, so far as I have been able to 

 ascertain, are entirely produced by moult, which appears to be 

 continuous, at least among younger birds of one or two years old, 

 throughout the greater part of the year. A series of birds coll cted 

 at Cromarty shows the moult among these younger birds to be at 

 its height in the middle of May. 



It has been stated that " the female has the longer crest and 

 is brighter in colour as well as larger in size " ; but this is not the 

 case ; and, as may be seen from the table of measurements given 

 below (p. ;^4()), the male is, as a rule, larger than the female. There 

 is, however, very considerable individual variation in size irrespective 

 of sex. Birds from the Faroe Islands, Great Britain, &c., are 

 distinctly larger than those from India, &c., the bill being, as a 

 rule, conspicuously larger and stouter. No great importance need, 

 however, be attached to this difl'erence, for the largest Indian 

 specimens are not appreciably smaller than some of the birds from 

 northern latitudes. 



