PHALACROCORAX 559 



Cormoran-largup, French ; Corvo marinho da crista, Portug. ; 

 Marangone col tiuffo, Ital. ; Krakenscharbe, German ; Gekuifde 

 Aalscholver, Dutch ; Top&karv, Dan. ; Krdkskarf, Norweg. ; 

 Toppskarf, Swed. 



<$ ad. (Scotland). General colour silky blackish green, the head and 

 neck greener ; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts paler and margined with 

 velvety black ; on the back of the crown a broad recurved crest ; bill 

 black, the nail yellowish brown, the basal portion and the bare portion of 

 the chin yellowish marked with black ; angle of mouth orange ; bare space 

 round the eye and legs black ; a yellowish spot at the base^of the bill ; iris 

 rich green. Gape 3*6, wing 9'9, tail 5*7, tarsus 2'4 inch. Female similar 

 but smaller. After the breeding season the crest is cast. The young bird 

 is brown with a greenish tinge above, and has the chin, throat, and 

 middle of the abdomen white or whitish, the rest of the under parts 

 brownish ash ; bill dusky brown above, brownish flesh below ; bare skin 

 at the base of bill and round the eye dusky yellow ; legs dusky brown. 

 In this and all other members of the genus the nestling is blackish, 

 covered with blackish down. 



Hal*. The coasts of Europe up into the Arctic Circle, but 

 not far up the Baltic, or on the coasts of Finland ; Iceland ; 

 the Fseroes ; Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas. 



In habits it resembles the Cormorant but it frequents the 

 sea-coasts and is but seldom to be met with on fresh water. It 

 is gregarious in its habits and breeds in societies, placing 

 its nest, which is a large structure of seaweed, &c., on a rock 

 or a rocky ledge in a cave, and in June or July deposits 

 3 or 4, sometimes even more, bluish white eggs covered with 

 a chalky coating, elongated in shape and rather smaller than 

 those of P. carlo. By some authors the Mediterranean Shag 

 (P. dcsmaresti) has been subspecifically separated, the young 

 bird having the under parts whiter or nearly white, but I cannot 

 endorse this view. 



782. AFRICAN CORMORANT. 

 PHALACROCORAX AFRICANUS. 



Phalacrocorax africanus (Gmel.), Syst. Nat. i. p. 577 (1788) ; Dresser, 

 vi. p. 169. pi. 390 ; Grant, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxvi. p. 407. 



<J ad. (Egypt). General colour glossy black with bottle-green re- 

 flections ; forehead intermixed with white and furnished with a short 

 crest ; sides of back, scapulars, and wing-coverts grey and blackish grey 

 broadly tipped with black ; quills and tail black washed with grey ; bill 

 yellow, the ridge of the mandible brown ; bare skin of the face bluish ; 

 iris carmine-red ; legs black. Culmen 1 '3,? wing 7'5, tail 6'0, tarsus 1-5 

 inch. After the breeding season the head and neck are brown, the greyish 



