IV PHALACROCORACIDAE 79 
in caves, on ledges of clifts, tops of stacks, or low islands, and 
less commonly on trees, bushes or reeds, 1s a mass of sticks, grass, 
seaweed, rushes and the like, according to situation; the smaller 
species constructing a shehter platform when the trees are chosen, 
and a lining of green leaves being occasionally added. Early in 
spring colonies, often of very large dimensions, are formed by many 
—hbut not all—of the species for breeding purposes, the stench 
from the remains of decaying fish at such spots beige decidedly 
unpleasant. Incubation lasts about four weeks. Cormorants 
were of old used in England for catching fish, and this has been 
a regular business from time immemorial in China and Japan; 
but with us it is a mere sport, the chief exponent of which 
is now Captain F. H. Salvin, whose chapters on “ Fishing with 
Cormorants” will be read with pleasure by those interested in the 
subject... The bird rises to the surface to swallow its prey, but 
a strap round the neck allows it to dispose of the smallest only 
of its captures, while it is forced by its master to disgorge the 
remainder before it 1s rewarded with a portion of the catch. 
Plotus anhinga, the Snake-bird or Darter of tropical and 
sub-tropical America, ranging northwards to West Mexico and 
South Carolina, 1s glossy greenish-black with beautiful silvery- 
erey markings on the scapulars and wing-coverts, a broad brown 
tip to the tail, which becomes white terminally, and long whitish 
hair-hke feathers on the sides of the occiput and neck, merging 
into a black mane on the nape. The filoplumes are absent in 
winter, and are inconspicuous in the female, which differs, more- 
over, in having a grey-buff head, neck, and breast, the latter 
being divided from the belly by a chestnut band. The young 
resemble the mother-bird, but are duller and lack the chestnut 
tint. The peculiar long thin neck and corrugated rectrices have 
been mentioned above; the plumage is unusually close, and is 
chiefly composed of small soft feathers of very uniform distribu- 
tion; the lores, orbits, chin, and throat are naked, the two former 
being apparently greenish, and the latter, which is moderately 
dilatable, orange. The bill is olive above and yellow below, the 
feet mainly olive with yellow webs. Three other species are 
recognised, but the variability in the amount of rufous in all 
makes their validity somewhat questionable. They are P. novae 
hollandiae of Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea, with a 
1 Freeman and Salvin, Falconry, its claims, etc., London, 1859, pp. 327-349. 
