PELECANID^. 367 



[I believe that this Gannet has not been figured, except inci- 

 dentally in the view of the island of Ichaboe, published in 

 Mr. Andersson's work ' The River Okavango/ p. 349. — Ed.] 



423. Plotus Levaillantii, Licht.* African Darter. 



Plotus Levaillantii, Temminck's PI. Col. pi. .380. 



Plotus coriffensis, Layard's Cat. No. 69G. 



Plotus Levaillantii, Gray's Hand-list of Bii'ds, No. 11101. 



During my visit to Lake Ngami I saw there a bird 

 which T believe to have been of this species; and my 

 friend Mr. E. Layard informs me that specimens of it 

 were obtained in the Lake-country by Mr. James 

 Chapman, jun., by whom they were presented to the Cape 

 Museum. 



424. Graculus carbo (Liim.). Common Cormorant. 

 Phalacrocorax carbo, Gould's Bii'ds of Europe, pi. 407. 

 Graculus carbo, Finsch & Hartlaub'a Vogel Ost-Afiika's, p. 844. 



At one season of the year this species is not uncommon 

 at Walwich Bay, and from thence southward to Table 

 Bay, all along the coast and on the adjacent islands ; it 

 is, however, by no means so numerous as G. cajtensis. 



The iris is bright sea-green, the bare skin round the 

 eyes and the base of the lower mandible yellow ; the 

 lower mandible and the edges of the upper mandible 

 light horn-colour, the ridge of the latter dark horn- 

 colour ; the legs and toes inky black. 



* [Mr. Gray, in his ' Hand-list of Birds/ vol. iii. p. 12.5, adopts the view 

 that the genus Plotus should he regarded as forming a distinct family; but 

 it seems to me that the Darters are so closely allied to the Cormorants that 

 they may more properly be treated as forming merely a subfamily of the 

 Pelecanidse. — Ed.1 



