272 PHALACEOCOEACIDJE. 



ceeds, Beneath this upper chalky layer is an ordinary hard shell of 

 a greenish -blue colour or bluish-green, much as in many of the 

 Herons. They vary from 2-2 to 2*62 in length, and from 1*41 to 

 1-7 in breadth. 



Phalacrocorax fuscicollis, Steph. The Lesser Cormorant. 



Graculus sinensis, Shaw, apud Jerd. E. Ind. ii ; p. 862 j Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. # E. no. 1006. 



The Lesser Cormorant is certainly very rare in Upper India. 

 Dr. Jerdou says that it is perhaps more generally spread over 

 the country than the Common Cormorant, but this is an entire 

 mistake. I have never yet seen a live specimen, nor have I 

 ever seen a skin from any part of the North- West Provinces north 

 of the Jumna, from Oudh, the Punjab, Eajpootana, or Sind. The 

 only specimens I have received (except from Lower Bengal and the 

 countries eastwards) were sent me from Jhansi by Mr. F. E. 

 Blewitt, who found this species breeding in the environs of large 

 lakes in that district during the latter half of August and the first 

 half of September. 



The nests were placed on low trees standing on flooded land, and 

 what at other seasons were the banks of the lakes. The birds 

 were breeding in companies, ten or a dozen nests in the same tree. 

 The nests were moderately large stick structures, and contained, 

 some five, some four, and some a lesser number of eggs, of which 

 he sent me a large supply. 



Mr. Gates, writing from Pegu, says : " This bird breeds in reeds 

 in the Myitkyo swamp alongside the many other birds which are 

 found there. Although the bird is very numerous I came across 

 only one nest with eggs, the rest containing young ones. This 

 was on the 25th July. 



" The nest is made of the smaller side-branches of reeds, is flat 

 at top, converging to a point below, about 9 inches across and 6 

 deep, supported on a few bent reeds. Eggs 5, 1*92 to 2-15 long, 

 and 1*27 to 1*4 broad. Colour as in other Cormorants' eggs." 



Colonel Butler sends me the following note : " Mr. Doig and 

 I found large numbers of this species breeding in the E. Narra, 

 Sind, in company with P. pyymoeus and P. melanoyaster, at the end 

 of July 1878, in a dense tamarisk thicket, that had become partly 

 submerged by the overflow of the Indus. The nests were ex- 

 actly like the nests of the Snake-bird and Small Cormorant, and 

 the eggs also similar to the eggs of these two species but inter- 

 mediate in size, though scarcely separable from those of the Snake- 

 bird." 



The eggs are very long ovals, much pointed towards one end, 

 exteriorly a bluish chalky white, but beneath this, where this outer, 

 somewhat friable, covering is removed by accident (as often happens 

 naturally) or design, the real shell is of a pale greenish blue. 



The eggs vary in length from 1-98 to 2-25, and in breadth from 

 1*28 to 1*6 ; but the average of thirty-three eggs is 2'1 by 1'4. 



