IV PHALACROCORACIDAE 79 



in caves, ou ledges of cliffs, tops of stacks, or low islands, aud 

 less commonly on trees, bushes or reeds, is a mass of sticks, grass, 

 seaweed, rushes and the like, according to situation ; the smaller 

 species constructing a slighter platform when the trees are chosen, 

 and a lining of green leaves being occasionally added. Early in 

 spring colonies, often of very large dimensions, are formed by many 

 but not all of the species for breeding purposes, the stench 

 troni the remains of decaying fish at such spots being decidedly 

 unpleasant. Incvibation lasts about four weeks. Cormorants 

 were of old used in England for catching fish, and this has been 

 a regular business from time immemorial in China and Japan ; 

 liut with us it is a mere sport, the chief exponent of wliich 

 is now Captain E. H. Salvin, whose chapters on " Eishing with 

 Cormorants " will be read with pleasure by those interested in the 

 sul^ject.-^ The l)ird rises to the surface to swallow its prey, but 

 a strap round the neck allows it to dispose of the smallest only 

 ( )f its captures, while it is forced by its master to disgorge the 

 remainder before it is rewarded with a portion of the catch. 



Flat us anhinga, the Snake-bird or Darter of tropical and 

 sul>tropical America, ranging northwards to West Mexico and 

 Soutli Carolina, is glossy greenish-black with beautiful silvery- 

 -rey markings on the scapulars and wing-coverts, a broad brown 

 tip to the tail, which becomes white terminally, and long whitish 

 hair-like feathers on the sides of the occiput and neck, merging 

 into a black mane on the nape. The filoplumes are absent in 

 ^vinter, and are inconspicuous in the female, which differs, more- 

 (iver, in having a grey-buff head, neck, and breast, the latter 

 lieing divided from the belly by a chestnut band. The young 

 resemble the mother-bird, but are duller and lack the chestnut 

 tint. The peculiar long thin neck and corrugated rectrices have 

 been mentioned above ; the plumage is unusually close, and is 

 chiefly composed of small soft feathers of very uniform' distribu- 

 tion; the lores, orbits, chin, and throat are naked, the two former 

 lieing apparently greenish, and the latter, which is moderately 

 dilatable, orange. The bill is olive above and yellow below, the 

 ieet mainly olive with yellow webs. Three other species arc 

 recognised, but the variability in the amount of rufous in all 

 makes their validity somewhat questionable. They are P. novae 

 Iwllandiac of Australia, Xew Zealand, and Xew Guinea, with a 

 1 Freeman and Salvin, Falconry, Us claims, etc., London, 1859, p^. 327-340. 



