440 PLOTIN.E. 



THE LITTLE CORMORANT. 



Length, 19 to 20 ; expanse, 32 ; wing, 8'5 ; tail, 5'5 to 6 ; tarsus, 

 1-25; bill at front, 1 '25. 



Bill brown, livid-purple during breeding season ; gular skin 

 and orbits blackish, livid in summer ; legs blackish, dusky-livid 

 at the same season. 



In winter, the plumage is more or less black, the feathers 

 brown-edged on the neck, breast and back, and the chin, white. 



In full breeding plumage, in June or July, the whole body is 

 glossy black ; the head with a short occipital crest ; the wing- 

 coverts, scapulars, secondaries and tertiaries, as it were glossed 

 with silvery, with a black margin, and the interscapulars with a 

 narrow silvery centre ; a white triangular spot on the top of the 

 head ; lores white, and a broad line through the eyes with white 

 hairs, and several also on the nape and sides of the neck ; chin 

 black. 



The young have the upper plumage brown, mixed with black- 

 ish, and the lower parts reddish brown, white posteriorly, and the 

 throat whitish. 



The Little Cormorant is abundantly spread throughout the 

 entire region. 



It is a permanent resident and breeds in company towards 

 the end of the rains. 



The nests, composed of sticks, are placed on trees, standing 

 well out into the water. The eggs, three or four in number, are 

 long ovals, more or less pointed at one end, with a chalky coat- 

 ing, white or bluish-white in color when fresh laid, but becom- 

 ing soiled as incubation proceeds. 



This coating is easily removable, and frequently becomes 

 detached in the nest, leaving the hard greenish-blue shell visible. 

 They measure 175 inches in length by 1*16 in breadth. 



SUB-FAMILY, Plotinae. 



Bill elongate, slender, straight, subulate, very acute, the mar- 

 gin obliquely toothed towards the tip ; nostrils very small, 

 basal ; tail long, rounded ; neck very long and slender ; body and 

 feet as in the Cormorants. 



GENUS, Plotus, Lin. 



The characters are the same as those of the sub -family. 



Plotus melanogaster, Penn. 



1008. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 865 ; Butler, Guzerat, 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 34 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 

 IX, p. 442 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 332 ; 

 Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India, Ibis, 1885, p. 138. 



THE INDIAN SNAKE BIRD. 

 Length, 32 ; wing, 14 ; tail, 9 ; tarsus, 1-5 ; bill at front, 3'5. 



