AVES — PHALACROCORACID^. 515 



Adult birds in the non-breeding plumage lack the black throat, the 

 entire neck beneath being white. The colors of the carunculations are 

 duller in tone, often yellowish ; the crest is not present ; the long white 

 feathers or plumes of the breeding period, at which time they decorate 

 the darker portions of the plumage, are absent. In the large series of 

 birds of this sort in the British Museum, there appears every stage of 

 transition between the two phases of plumage of the adult birds. 



Immature birds seem like non-breeding adults but have the dark parts 

 duller and the white below more restricted ; especially on the throat, 

 where this color is often only a broad median line. 



The following descriptions of the soft parts have been published : 



"Female: Trinidad Channel, February 27, 1879. Iris reddish brown; 

 lids and wattled skin of a blood-red colour ; legs grey in front, dusky 

 black behind." (Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 11.) 



" Iris red ; bare skin of face red. 



"One of the adults had a white spot on the ear-coverts and on the 

 upper throat, being in transition from summer to winter plumage. The 

 immature female had the abdomen thickly marked with very dark brown. 



"This species is particularly common in the Straits of Magellan. The 

 breeding-season was over when we were there. During the first week in 

 February I saw numbers in all the anchorages visited, feeding amongst 

 the seaweed." (M. J. Nicoll, Orn. Jour. Voy. round World, Ibis, Jan. 

 1904, p. 48.) 



Geographical Range. — Southern Coasts of Chili and Patagonia; the 

 Straits of Magellan and Fuegian waters ; the Falkland Islands. 



This is one of the commoner cormorants in the Straits of Magellan 

 where they appear to be resident ; they are salt-water birds, seldom of 

 occurrence in the interior or even away from the coast and were not 

 recorded on any of the salt lakes inland by Mr. Hatcher and his associates. 

 There are records of the birds as far north as Valparaiso on the Pacific 

 Coast and on the Atlantic shore near the mouth of the Rio Santa Cruz 

 of Patagonia. 



Some idea of the life of the birds is gained from the following vivid 

 sketch : Dr. Coppinger speaks of the birds in connection with P. vigtta 

 and says : 



"One day, when we were lying at our old anchorage in Tom Bay, I 

 saw a cormorant rise to the surface with a large fish in its mouth, which, 



