852 THE VIOLET-GREEN CORMORANT. 
No. 343. 
VIOLET-GREEN CORMORANT. 
A. O. U. No. 123. Phalacrocorax pelagicus Pall. 
Synonyms.—PELacic CorMORANT. SHAG. 
Description.— Adults in breeding plumage: General coloration deep lustrous 
bottle-green with purplish reflections ; head and neck all around shining violet with 
steel-blue changes, a few lanceolate white feathers projecting at random from 
sides of head and neck; a prominent flank-patch pure white; frontal and occipital 
feathers lengthened, producing two crests, of which frontal more prominent; 
frontal feathering reaching culmen, but eyelids and space below eye bare; gular 
sac reduced in area, dull coral-red. Bill and feet bluish-black; iris bright red. 
sIdults after breeding season are without crests, plumules, or flank-patches. 
Young birds are plain sooty black above, lighter, or whitening centrally, below. 
Nestlings hatched naked, soon acquiring sooty gray down, Length 25.00-29.00 
(635-736.6) ; wing 10,00-11.00 (254-279.4) ; tail 6.00-7.00 (152.4-177.8) ; bill 2.00 
(50.8); tarsus 2.00 (50.8). 
Recognition Marks.—[rant size; white flank-patches in breeding season 
(but bird occurs in Washington in winter only?); lustrous green and violet 
plumage distinctive for all save following form; larger. 
Nesting.—Nest: chiefly of compacted eel-grass, cemented with excrement, 
placed on narrow ledge or upon rock boss of sea wall. Eggs: 4, pale bluish green 
with irregular calcareous covering, elongate ovate to cylindrical ovate. Av. size, 
2.30 1.40 (58.4 x 35.6). Season: June; one brood. 
General Range.—Coast and islands of the North Pacific; on the Asiatic side 
south to the Kuriles and Japan; on the American side breeding south to Vancouver 
Island; south in winter to Puget Sound, 
Range in Washington.—W inter visitors on Puget Sound and connected 
waters. 
Authorities.—Graculus violaceus, Gray, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Sury. IX. 
1858, p. 882, part (winter specimen). Rh. Kb. Kk. 
Specimens.—( U. of W.) Prov. C. 
VIOLET-GREEN describes the characteristic sheen of the plumage in 
both pelagicus and resplendens; but by common consent the name as a dis- 
tinctive mark has been reserved for the larger birds of the North. Our 
breeding birds are really intergrades in size, but they are decidedly smaller 
than those which descend upon our coasts in winter; and on the whole it 
would seem wiser to regard the Forty-ninth Parallel, or even the northern 
end of Vancouver Island, as the dividing line between the two forms, 
rather than the mouth of the Columbia River, as has formerly been the 
custom. 
