8 BIRDS OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



Iris yellow. 



Head and body brilliant changeable steel-blue, with violet tints along 

 back of head and neck. Back and upper surfaces of wings and tail 

 lustrous dark-green. Throat from the bill and all under parts, pure 

 white. During the breeding-season, the bird carries an erectile crest of 

 about a dozen small plumes upon the top of the head. 



Tarsus and foot yellow. 



The foregoing description is taken from a female in bre'eding-plumage. 



Uggs two or three in number, pale-green. 



Young perfectly naked for some time after hatching, black, and showing 

 no sign of plumage. Bill black. Feet clumsy and misshapen ; bones 

 still cartilaginous, pale, and transparent. Abdomen very protuberant. 

 December 24, a young bird had begun to show a hairy sort of plumage 

 along the margins of the wings and about the rump. 



Only a single adult skin of this cormorant was i:)reserved and brought 

 home, a female in nuptial plumage. There is no better reason, I am 

 afraid, for this omission than the fact that the birds were exceedingly 

 plentiful and the preparation of the skins a very tedious job, so that it 

 was put off from day to day for rarer specimens, until, in the hurry of an 

 unexpectedly early departure, it was omitted altogether. From memory, 

 I can only say that the young birds were of much more sober plumage 

 than the females, destitute of the crest and brilliant blue eyelid, and 

 generally rather smaller. All had white breasts and bellies; but there 

 were many minor variations in plumage, which I suppose to indicate 

 differences in age. 



They do not differ materially in habits from other species of cormo- 

 rant, diving and swimming well, feeding entirely on fish, and often con- 

 gregating for hours upon a projecting rock or headland, where, in i)airing- 

 time, they enact various absurd performances, billing and curveting 

 about one another in a very ridiculous manner. The note is a hoarse 

 croak, which never varies, so far as I have observed. They seem to be 

 on particularly good terms with the CMonis, and are often joined by 

 gulls when sunning themselves. 



They build upon shelves, for the most part in the precipitous faces 

 of cliffs overlooking the water; the base of the nest being raised some- 

 times as much as two feet, and composed of mingled mud and excre- 

 ment. Upon this pedestal is constructed a rather artistic nest of long 

 blades of grass. Apparently, they continue to use the old nests year 

 after year, adding a new layer each season, and thus building the nest 



