334 riiALACROcoicAcin*. 



Mr. Henry K. Elvery writes nie as follows from Alstonville, Richmond River, New South 

 Wales : — " I observed a lar^e roolcery of Phalacyocovax mdanoldtcns on Stony Island, Tuckiana 

 Swamp, Richmond River, on Sth November, 1899. The birds were breeding in company with 

 Ha'odias allm. The nests contained from three to five eg'gs, and incubation was well advanced." 

 From Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence River, New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge writes 

 ,„e: — "The Little Black and White Cormorant (PJialiu-roiorux uiclanolciuns) is the smallest 

 species inhabiting the Clarence River. It may be seen in all parts wherever swamps, lagoons 

 or creeks exist. It is plentifully dispeised in the reaches of the Upper Clarence, where I have 

 found small colonies breeding upon several occasions : also in that stretch of water between 

 Grafton and Copmanhurst, where steamer traffic passes by daily. It constructs its nest on the 

 Tea-trees that overhang the banks of the river, and it is a loose clumsy structure formed of small 

 sticks, bark and leaves. The colonies I found consisted of from three to a dozen nests, and the 

 eggs are laid during September, October and November. Three to five eggs are usually laid 

 for a sitting." 



From Melbourne, Victoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me:—" I have shot Little Black 

 and White Cormorants ( Flialacnuonix iin-hiiiolciiiiis) on the "I'arra, on lagoons at Heidelberg, in 

 Hobson's Bay, at Port Melbourne, and on the Fitzroy River, West Kimberley, North- 

 western Australia. At the latter place I saw a number of trees containing the nests from which 

 the young Cormorants had just flown. The immense amount of white excreta on the branches 

 and ground caused the place to look as if the whole had been lime washed." 



While resident at Hamilton, in the Western District of \ictoria, Dr. W. Macgillivray sent 

 me the following notes:— "In company with Mr. C. Seymour, another naturalist, and Mr. 

 Brommel of Hensley Park, on the 4th November, 1900, we visited a dam about fourteen miles 

 from Hamilton, ou Mohanger Station. The nests of Phulainhomx mclanohiicus on one tree, 

 standing in about three feet of water, were about two hundred in number, being on all parts of 

 it, each about one foot or less in diameter, composed of Gum twigs and leaves, the leaves 

 drooping down from the sides, and were somewhat flat on .top. They contained young at all 

 stages of growth and eggs from fresh to all degrees of incubation; the clutches varied from four 

 to seven, the usual clutch being five, but no nest contained more than three young birds. Most 

 of the fully, and many of the partially, feathered young, on our approach clambered out of their 

 nests and dropped into the water below, and curiously enough, although they were dropping all 

 around us, we did not see a single one come to the surface, and they certainly were not drowned, 

 they disappeared at once, and were not seen again during the two hours or more that we spent 

 there. Many young Shags were seen hanging by their necks dead amongst the branches. 

 Near the top of the tree was an old Whistling Eagle's nest, with two nests of the Spotted-sided 

 Finch under it. The Eagle's nest contained a Shag's nest and eggs." 



Mr. W. White, of the Reedbeds near Adelaide, South .Australia, wrote me as follows under 

 date 17th May, 1894:— "I have just returned from a trip among the Cormorants at Nepean 

 Bay. I was late this season, as there were hundreds of four species of young ones of all sizes, 

 from just hatching to those able to fly. However, being a little late turned out to be an advantage, 

 as it better enabled me to distinguish the different species. It was interesting to see the nest of 

 Phahuvocorax iiu-laiiolaiai'., with its silver-breasted, small pointed head and thin-necked young, 

 adjoining the nest of P. iwihr-hollamiia, with its black, woolly booby-headed young. They seem 

 to be on the best of terms with each other; many of them came and fed their young within a 

 few feet of me, and it was wonderful to see the sized fish that would go down that little silvery 

 throat. The Black Cormorant was much more shy than the Little White-breasted species. I 

 also took many eggs from nests which contained young. It was interesting to me to find that 

 the Cormorant does not eat dead fish, as in their zeal to fatten their offspring they brought fish 

 much too large to go down the gullets of the very young, such as flathead, a bulky fish, nine 



