PIIALACftOCORAX. 341 



pointed nuchal crest ; feathers of the upper back, scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts with broad brownish bronze centres and black 

 margins, the quills brownish black ; tail-feathers dull black. 



In the breeding-season a large patch of snowy-white appears on 

 each fl.ink, and the plumage of the head and upper neck, with the 

 exception of the crest, is interspersed with a mass of long silky, 

 almost hair-like white plumes, which often conceal the shorter 

 black feathers. These white feathers are shed after the breeding- 

 season. 



Young birds of the year are dull brown above, with blackish 

 margins to the feathers of the upper back, the scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts ; the middle of the throat, the whole breast, and the 

 middle of the abdomen white. There is a gradual passage from 

 this to the adult plumage, which is only assumed in. the fourth 

 year, the upper parts, at a period when there is still much white 

 or whitish on the lower plumage, resembling those in adult birds. 



Upper mandible and tip of lower dark brown, remainder of lower 

 mandible white or pinkish ; irides green ; eyelids and lores dusky 

 yellow ; skin of throat bright yellow, or black spotted with yellow ; 

 skin under eye orange ; legs and claws black. Tail-feathers 14. 



Length 32; tail 7 ; wing 13 ; tarsus 2'3 ; bill from gape 

 3-75. There is considerable variation, and males as a rule are 

 larger than females. 



Distribution. Almost throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, and Aus- 

 tralia, and on the A tlantic coast of North Americ a. This Cormorant 

 occurs on the coasts, large rivers, and larger pieces of fresh w r ater 

 throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma. 



Habits, cf*c. The Common Cormorant, though often seen fishing 

 singly, generally roosts in companies, and often associates in. large 

 flocks. It breeds in colonies, and the nests and eggs have been 

 taken in October by Gates in Lower Pegu, in January by Captain 

 Horace Terry near Eellary, Madras Presidency, and by Scrope 

 Doig on the Eastern JSTara, Siud, in November. The nests are, 

 in India, generally on trees growing in water, sometimes on rocks, 

 elsewhere on sea-cliffs. The eggs, 4 to 6. or even 7 in number, 

 are very elongated ovals, measuring about 2*5 by 1*6. 



1527. Phalacrocorax fuscicollis. The Indian Shag. 

 Phalacrccorax fuscicollis, Stc-ph. in Shaw's Gen. Zool. xiii, pt. 1. p. 91 



(1825) ; Hwne $ bav. S. F. vi, p. 406 ; Dav. $ Wend. S. F. vii, 



p. 93 ; Butler, ibid. pp. 178, 189, 467 ; Ball, ibid. p. 234 ; Hume, Cat. 



no. 1006; Doig, S. F. viii, p. 372; Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 1182; 



Butler, S. F. ix, p. 442 ; Davidson, 8. F. x, p. 327 ; Gates, B. B. 



ii, p. 233 ; Barnes, Birds Bow. p. 439 ; id. Jour. Bom. N. H. Sac. 



vi, p. 305; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 352 ; Gates in Hume's N. 8r E. 2nd 



ed. iii, p. 272. 

 Graculus sinensis, apud Blyth, Cat. p. 298 ; Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 862 ; 



King, J. A. S. B. xxxvii, pt. 2, p. 218 ; Gates, S. F. iii, p 350; 



Butler, S. F. iv, p. 33. 

 Graculus fuscicollis, Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 181; Bulger, 7^1869, 



p. 170 ; Blyth Sf Wald. Birds Burm. p. 164 ; Gates, S. F. v, p. 170. 



The Lesser Cormorant, Jerdon. 



