294. SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
Young birds are brown above; the throat, breast, and 
abdomen are mostly white, becoming more and more streaked 
with brown as age increases. 
Bill dark horny-brown, often lighter underneath ; iris greeny- 
blue ; naked skin round the eye black, on the throat yellow ; 
legs and feet black. 
Length 25; wing about 10°5; tail 6°5; tarsus 1°8; bill 
from gape 3°25. 
Distribution.—Occurs on Minneri and other large tanks in 
the north of the Island. 
Four specimens shot by me out of different flociss on Minneri 
tank all belonged to this species. 
It is also sparingly distributed in the Hambantota District 
and probably in the Eastern Province. I have shot the bird 
in August, so it would appear to be resident. Elsewhere it 
occurs in Sind, Central India, and the Carnatic, and more 
abundantly in Burma. 
Habits.—This species occurs in fairly large flocks on some 
of the larger inland sheets of water. It is a wary bird, and 
seldom comes within range of the shore. As yet no nesting 
place appears to have been discovered in Ceylon. In India 
the birds breed in colonies on low trees standing in the water. 
The eggs are rather smaller than those of P. carbo, and 
measure about 2°1 by 1°4. 
PHALACROCORAX JAVANICUS (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 342). 
PHALACROCORAX PYGMUS (Legge, p. 1191). 
The Little Cormorant. 
Description.—Black slightly glossed with green; wing 
coverts and scapulars dark silver-gray, each feather bordered 
with black. Out of the breeding season the throat adjoining 
the naked skin is white ; in the breeding season some scattered 
white feathers appear on the crown and sides of the head, 
with a few white filaments on the sides of the neck. 
Bill brown, livid purple in the breeding season ; iris greenish- 
brown to greenish-white ; the naked skin of face and throat 
and the legs blackish out of the breeding season, livid at 
breeding time. 
