GRACULIDH, CORMORANTS. 301 
Family GRACULIDZ. Cormorants. 
Bill about as long as head, stout or slender, more or less nearly terete, always 
strongly hooked at the end; tomia generally found irregularly jagged, but not 
truly serrate; a long, narrow, nasal groove, but nostrils obliterated in the adult 
state; gape reaching below the eyes, which are set in naked skin. Gular pouch 
small, but forming an evident naked space under the bill and on the throat, variously 
encroached upon by the feathers. Wings short for the order, stiff and strong, the 
2d primary usually longer than the 3d, both these exceeding the 1st. Tail rather 
long, large, more or less fan-shaped, of 12-14 very stiff, strong feathers, denuded to 
the base by extreme shortness of the coverts; thus almost ‘scansorial” in struc- 
ture, recalling that of a woodpecker or creeper, and used in a similar way, as a 
support in standing, or an aid in scrambling over rocks and bushes. The body is 
compact and heavy, with a long neck; the general configuration, and especially the 
far backward set of the legs, is much like that of pygopodous birds. While other 
Steganopodes can stand with the body more or less nearly approaching a horizontal 
position, the cormorants are forced into a nearly upright posture, when the tail 
affords with the feet a tripod of support. They also, like the birds just mentioned, 
dive and swim under water in pursuit of their prey, using their wings for submarine 
progression, which is not the case with the other families, excepting Plotide. 
Among osteological characters, aside from the general figure of the skeleton, a 
long bony style in the nape, in the position of the ligamentum nuche of many 
animals, and ossified with the occiput, is the most remarkable. It occurs in the 
anhinga also, but is there much smaller. The desmognathous structure is seen in its 
highest development; the palatines being not only soldered, but sending down a 
keel along their line of union; the interorbital septum is very defective, with 
horizontal inferior border (a general character of the order except in the pelicans). 
The pterylosis agrees essentially with the ordinal pterylographic characters, but 
the plumage is peculiar in certain details. Excepting a few speckled species, and 
some others that are largely white below, the plumage is glossy or lustrous black, 
often highly iridescent with green, purple and violet tints, commonly uniform on 
the head, neck and under parts, but on the back and wing coverts, where the 
feathers are sharp-edged and distinct, the shade is more apt to be coppery or 
bronzy, each feather with well defined darker border. This concerns, however, 
only the adult plumage, which is the same in both sexes; the young are plain 
brownish or blackish. The cormorants have other special featherings, generally of 
a temporary character, assumed at the breeding season and lost soon after; these 
are curious long filamentous feathers (considered by Nitzsch filoplumaceous), on the 
head and neck, and even, in some cases, on the upper and under parts too. These 
feathers are commonly white, as is also a large silky flank-patch acquired by several 
species. Many cormorants are also crested with ordinary long slender feathers ; 
the crest is often double, and when so, the two crests may be either one on each 
side of the head, or they may follow each other on the middle line of the hind head 
and nape. Our species illustrate all these various featherings. The naked parts 
about the head vary with the species and afford good characters, especially con- 
sidering the shape of the pouch, as noted by Mr. Lawrence and Prof. Schlegel; the 
skin is usually brightly colored, and sometimes carunculate. The eyes, as a rule, 
are green—a color not common among birds. 
Twenty-five species of cormorants may be considered established. Their study 
