490 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



tion, that the white feathers on the neck have entirely disap- 

 peared, leaving that part of the same hue as the under surface. 

 The nestlings are sparingly covered with black down; 

 when they are fledged the upper surface is paler than in the 

 adult, and the under surface nearly white. In this state of 

 plumage they resemble the young of the Common Shag or 

 Cormorant of the European seas . 



Sp. 653. PHALACROCORAX VARIUS. 



Pied Cormorant. 

 Pelecanus pica, Forster's Drawings, no. 106. 



varius, Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 575. 



fuscescens, Vieili. 2nd Edit, du Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., torn. viii. 



p. 86. 

 Pied Shag, Lat. Gen. Syn., vol. vi. p. 605. 

 Carbo albiventer, Less. 

 Gracalus varius, G. R. Gray, Zool. of Voy. of Ereb. and Terr., Birds, 



p. 19. 

 Hypoleucus varius, Reich. Syst. Av., tab. 63. fig. 874. 

 Ma-dee, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia. 

 Black and White Shag, Colonists of Western Australia. 



Phalacrocorax hypoleucus, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii. 

 pi. 68. 



I first observed this fine Cormorant in Nepean Bay, Kan- 

 garoo Island, where it was very abundant, and I have since 

 ascertained that no species of the genus inhabiting Australia 

 possesses a wider range, for it is almost universally dispersed 

 along the whole line of the southern coast from Swan River 

 on the west to Moreton Bay on the east ; I have also received 

 specimens from New Zealand, which present no perceptible 

 differences. 



The Pied Cormorant may be regarded as a gregarious 

 species, many hundreds being sometimes seen in company, 

 particularly in those bays and inlets of the sea whose shores 

 are flat and sandy, and where the tide brings in an abundant 

 supply of fish, upon which the bird almost solely subsist^, and 



