PHALACROCOIiAX. 3.}1 



Adui.t male (in breeding plumage).— r/enera^ ooluur above hroicn, the scapulars sliyhtJy darker, 

 glossed with grepit, all the Jhithns, induiliny the upper umig-coverts, having dark brown margins, 

 thr inner series of the latter hlaekish-broirn : quills dark brown with a bronzy-green wash; lower 

 bark, rn,„/> and upper tMil-cunrts and tail-feather-: bh(ckish-/rrowH with a bluish gloss ; feathers on the 

 croira oj the h-ad and bark ,f nerk black, their bases margined with whit.y-brown ; sides of the head 

 and neck, all the under surface and under tnil-corerts pare while ,■ outer side of thighs blackish- 

 brown, nearly black, with a slight gre^nifh gloss: bill horn colour, sides of the lower mandible 

 ashy-white, the gular sac yellow .- space in front of the eye rich orange; legs a7id feel black .■ iris light 

 green. Total length in the flesh SO inches, ming 12, tail 7, bill 2 75, tarsus 2:/t5. 



Adult fkmalk (in liicpdini.' plumage). — ,s'/(?4i/(ir in plumage to the male. 



Distribution.~(.)Mce.ns\imd, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, 

 North-western Australia. 



/T^IIFi Pied Cormorant is distributed over the coastal districts and adjacent islets of all but 

 -L the northern and extreme north-eastern portions of the Australian Continent. It is, 

 however, far more common m its vast breeding haunts, the southern and western portions of 

 Its range, than it is in Eastern Australia, to the latter of which it is an irregular visitor, and not 

 a permanent resident. To the estuaries, bays and inlets of Eastern New South Wales it may 

 appear in large numbers, principally during the winter and early spring months, and then be 

 absent again for years. It visited the neighbourhood of Sydney in large flocks from July to 

 October, 1892, and many specimens were obtained at Narrabeen Lake, Botany Bay, and the 

 Hawkesbury, Parramatta and Cook Rivers, and from further north at Port Stephens and on the 

 Bellinger River. 



Kangaroo Island, South Australia, and the islets of Spencer and St. X'incent Gulfs, have for 

 many years contained large breeding colonies of the Pied Cormorant. 



Mr. Bernard Woodward, F.G.S., Director of the Perth Museum, Western Australia, 

 presented photographs of the nesting-place of I'halaiiuMoyax hypokiuus on Middle Island, 

 near Gun Island, Houtman's Abrolhos, Western .Vustralia, taken by Mr. O. Lipfert in October, 

 1897, the nests in this instance being placed on the tops of broken down bushes. Mr. Tom 

 Carter informs me that it is very abundant at Point Cloates, North-western Australia, and it 

 used to breed on the tops of low bushes on Eraser's Island every season, where he has collected 

 a great number of their eggs for household purposes, between the iSth and 30th July. Much 

 further to the north, and opposite King Sound, North-western Australia, Mr. J. Walker, 

 R.N. uf H.M.S. " Penguin," found this species breeding on Adele Island on the 2nd May, 1891. 



In the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum " Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant had only a 

 skin of ;i single adult male for description. It was obtained during the Voyage of H.M.S. 

 " Herald," at Ereycinefs Harbour, Shark Bay, Western Australia. Apparently it is a small 

 specimen, the wing and tail-measurement being recorded respectively as io-8 and 47 inches. 

 In a number of specimens in the Australian Museum Collection the wing-measurement varies 

 from 11-5 to 12 inches, and tlie tail from 6 to 7 inches. 



Erom the Reedbeds, near Adelaide, Mr. W. White wrote me as follows under date 14th 

 June, 1894:— "I found Phalacvoccax hypolencus breeding on a small island in Nepean Bay, 

 Kangaroo Island. It has a decided preference for placing its nest, composed of salt-bush sticks, 

 on top of that bush where it is possible to do so, and to nest as close together as circumstances 

 will allow. In many instances it builds one nest on top of the other until they are eighteen 

 inches high, and continue to build on the old nests until they capsize them ; they then build on 

 the heap of ruins, placing a very little seaweed or small sticks in the centre, in some instances 

 barely enough to put the eggs on, the outer sticks being well matted together with filth. 

 Although they are surrounded with salt-bush three feet high, they do not go out of their nesting 

 boundary, but pull the sticks for building each season from the nearest bush, forming almost a 



