560 PHALACROCORAX 



feathers on the upper parts are margined with brownish white ; chin and 

 throat, breast and abdomen white ; base of neck and chest brownish white. 



Hal. Africa, from the Delta of the Nile to the Cape of Good 

 Hope; Madagascar. 



In habits it resembles P. pygmceus. It frequents inland 

 waters rivers, lakes, morasses, and even ponds, and is not to be 

 met with on the sea-coasts. Its flight is strong and rapid, and 

 it is an expert diver, feeding -almost exclusively on fish, but 

 frogs and even grasshoppers have been found in its stomach. 

 Its nest is a scanty structure of sticks, which is placed on a 

 bush, and it deposits 3 to 4 eggs which are bluish white 

 covered with a layer of chalky substance and which measure 

 about 1-80 by 1-22. 



783. PYGMY CORMORANT. 

 PHALACROCORAX PYGM^US. 



Phalacrocorax pygmceus (Pall.), Eeise, ii. p. 712, Anhang (1773) ; 

 (Naum.), xi. p. 112, Taf. 281 ; Gould, B. of E. v. pi. 409 ; Dresser, 

 vi. p. 173, pi. 391 ; Grant, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxvi. p. 405. 



Cormoran pygmtfe, French ; Marangone minore, Ital. ; Zwerg- 

 schar'be, German. 



ad. (Danube). Crown, nape, hind neck, and sides of same glossy reddish 

 brown, the forehead darker and tinged with greenish black ; middle of back, 

 scapulars, wing-coverts, and inner secondaries blackish grey, margined with 

 glossy black ; wings and tail black ; rest of plumage greenish black 

 with white spots composed of bare shafted feathers with a terminal white 

 tuft ; bill, naked skin round the eyes and on the throat, and legs black ; 

 iris sea-green. Culmen 1'35, wing 8'0, tail 6'5, tarsus 1'3 inch. Female 

 rather smaller and duller in colour. After the breeding season the throat 

 is white, the brown on the neck extends to the breast, and the white spots 

 are absent. The young bird has the chin white, the throat and breast 

 brown, the rest of the under parts dull white intermixed with brown, the 

 lower flanks and under tail-coverts black, the bill yellowish ; legs black 

 and iris brown. 



Hob. Southern and south-eastern Europe, rare as far north 

 as Poland ; north Africa ; western and central Asia as far east 

 as Afghanistan. 



In habits it resembles its congeners ; it frequents inland 

 lakes, rivers, and marshes in preference to the sea-coasts, is an 

 expert diver and feeds on fish which it captures under water. 

 It is gregarious and breeds in colonies, placing its scanty nest of 

 sticks on bushes in swamps, and late in May it lays 3 to 5, 

 seldom 6, eggs, which resemble those of P. graculus but are 



