330 I'llALAcuocor.AriD.v,. 



Dr. Lon-,dcile lluldeii wrote nie a^ follows, while resident at Circular Head, on the north- 

 western coast of Tasmania: -■•On the 13th April, i.SoJ, I shot a supposed younj; one of 

 IVuilacivroi'dx Inunf^n^Ui' on the shore of Circular Head I'eninsula; a large gurnet was in its crop 

 and gullet, and it allowed my approach while standing on the beach, so I thought it was seriously 

 in]ured or ill." 



Mr. K. D. Atkinson writes me from Tasmania :—" /'/;i7/(7nwcra.v lciicof;astci' was found 

 breeding on a small island of two or three acres in extent m West Bass Straits, near Walker 

 Island, on 2nd October, iqo5. Also on an exposed rock live or six miles distant on the next 

 day. In the former instance the nests were about twenty m number, whilst on the rock perhaps 

 one hundred, placed two or three feet apart, and compactly built of damp seaweed ; outer 

 measurement nineteen inches, inside nine or ten inches. The nests were placed on the ledges 

 of rock, varying from about six to fifteen feet above sea level, some on the most exposed part 

 of the top of the rock, and others in sheltered crevices, which were whitened with excrement, 

 and were more pleasantly approached from the windward side. Some nests contained three 

 eggs, others two, and a great many only one, and a number were in the course of construction, 

 and birds were walking up the rocks with moutiis lull of seaweed for this purpose. The eggs 

 were, with few exceptions, fresh. Those most recently laid were of a pale bluish-green colour, 

 thickly coated with lime. ( )thers were covered with dark stains from the seaweed and birds' feet. 

 The birds tiew off in a large dock on being disturbed, returning to their nests directly we left 

 the island." 



From llobart, Tasmania, Mr. Malcolm Harrison wrote me as follows: — "The White- 

 breasted Cormorant {l'halacyo(oyax Iciicoi^itihyJ is very common throughout Tasmania, frequenting 

 all the inland waters as well as those on the coast line. They breed freely, both on the Islands 

 of Bass Strait and on the cliffs and islands of the southern roast, in rookeries varying in size 

 from two or three nests only, as on Arch Island, to several hundreds." 



Tlie egt;s are usually two or three in number for a sitting, but not infrequently only one is 

 laid. Typically they are a lengthened oval in form, but vary to a swollen ellipse, and are of a 

 uniform pale bluish-white, the shell being more or less coated with lime; in some specimens it 

 is smoothly and uniformly distributed over the surface, completely obscuring the colour of the 

 shell; on others it is roughened, appearing only here and there in irregular patches. A set of 

 two in the Australian Museum Collection, taken by Mr. Joseph Gabriel on the 21st November, 

 1S93, on Storehouse Island, b^urneaux Group, Bass Strait, measures: — Length (A) 2-33 x 1-37 

 inches; (B) 2-35 x 1-5 inches. A set of two taken on the same date measures: — Length (A) 

 2-27 X 1-45 inches; (1>) 2-32 x 1-47 inches. A set of two taken by Mr. E. D. Atkinson on 

 the 2nd October, 1905, measures : — Length (A) 2-27 x 1-55 inches: (B) 2-28 x 1-55 inches. 

 A set of three taken on the 23rd October, 1893, on De Wett or Maatsuyker Island, lying off the 

 south coast of Tasmania, measures : — Length (.\) 2-36 x 1-43 inches; (B) 2-36 x 1-5 inches; 

 (C) 2-31 X 1-45 inches. 



October and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season in Southern 

 Australian and Tasmanian waters. 



Phalacrocorax hypoleucus. 



PIED CORMORANT. 

 Carhohyiiiilriini^, Brandt, Bull. Acad. St. Petersb., Vol. III., p. .55 (1837). 

 Phalacrucorn.-- hyiml,ncns,Qo\i\A,BAs. Austr., fol. Vol. VIL, pi. 68 (1848); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. 



Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 397 (1898); Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. L, p. 234 (1898). 

 rhalacroeortiii- rariiis, Gould (iiec Gmel.), Hatidbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 490 (1865). 



