778 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
numerous perpendicular crimson lines. Length, 4’ 7’; wing, 1’ 10’; 
tail, 10”. 
Fig. Cretzschm. in Riipp. Atlas, pl. 21. 
Fam. PHALACROCORACIDA. 
760. PHatacrocorax carBo (Linn.). Common Cormorant. 
We believe that we have seen this species in Simon’s Bay. Mr. 
Barratt writes: “I shot one of these near Kronstadt, Orange Free 
State, the only one I have ever seen in that State or the Transvaal. 
I found it resting on an overhanging branch near a small stream. 
When I fired it dropped into the water and dived; on its rising I 
gave it the second barrel, which brought it down.” It is as well to 
note that there may be some mistake about the identification of this 
specimen, as the Common Cormorant has often been confused with 
the next species in South Africa. 
According to Mr. Andersson, the true Common Cormorant of 
Europe is at one season of the year not uncommon at Walwich Bay, 
and from thence southward to Table Bay. 
The following description is from Macgillivray’s “‘ History of British 
Birds”: ‘‘Length about three feet; tail of fourteen feathers ; 
imbricated feathers of the back and wings ovate, rounded, with silky 
margins. Adult in winter crestless; the head, neck, lower parts, 
middle and hind part of the back, greenish black, tinged with blue ; 
the feathers of the fore part and sides of the back, with the wing- 
coyerts and secondary quills, greyish brown or bronzed, with 
greenish black margins; a greyish-white band on the throat, ascend- 
ing to the eyes; some scattered, extremely minute, filiform, pencil- 
tipped, white plumulets on the head and neck, and a few white 
streaks over the thigh. Adult in spring coloured as in winter, with 
the addition of a longitudinal greenish black crest, numerous linear 
white feathers on the head and neck, the throat-band pure white, 
and a roundish ‘patch of that colour over the thigh. Young with 
the upper part of the head and the neck dusky brown, finely 
streaked with brownish-grey ; cheeks and fore-neck, greyish-white, 
mottled with brownish-grey ; a brownish white band on the throat ; 
lower parts greyish white, mottled with dusky, becoming darker 
behind; upper parts nearly as in the adult.” 
Fig. Dresser, B. Eur, vi, pl. 384. 
