128 The Stork-like Birds 



and one from the middle, Miocene of France ; the others, from later geological 

 horizons, are reported from New Zealand, India, and North and South America. 

 In addition to these strictly fossil species, the largest species of the principal genus, 

 Pallas's Cormorant, *1ias probably been extinct for some fifty years. Another 

 indication of the antiquity of the family is shown by the fact that one species 

 the recently described Harris's Cormorant has been isolated in the Galapagos 

 Islands for a sufficient length of time to have lost the power of flight. This 

 interesting bird will be more fully described later. 



This family embraces two genera, Phalacrocorax, the Cormorants or Shags 

 as they are often called, with over forty species, and the monotypic Nannoplerum, 

 the Harris's Cormorant. Their nearest of kin are the Anhingas, or Snake-birds, 

 which have often been placed with them as a subfamily, but they differ from 

 them in having a subcylindrical, strongly hooked bill with the cutting edges en- 

 tire, instead of an elongated, simply pointed bill with serrated cutting edges. A 

 further anatomical difference is found in the occipital style, this being large in 

 the Cormorants and very feebly developed in the Anhingas. In both the feather 

 covering is almost uninterrupted. 



The Cormorants are birds between two and three feet in length, with an 

 elongated, powerful body, short, stout legs, and a rather long neck. The wings 

 are concave and rather short, reaching but little beyond the base of the tail; 

 the third quill is longest. The tail consists of twelve or fourteen very stiff feath- 

 ers. The face and throat are naked. The plumage is usually very compact, 

 dark-colored, and glossy, with greenish or bluish green reflections. The head 

 is often crested and during the nesting season the head and neck are often orna- 

 mented with more or less conspicuous plumes of slender, hair-like feathers which 

 disappear after the breeding season is over. 



In the matter of distribution the Cormorants as a group are almost cosmo- 

 politan, ranging from Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia on the north to New 

 Zealand and Kerguelen Island on the south, being, however, most abundant in 

 the tropics. Some of the species enjoy a very wide range, as, for example, the 

 Common Cormorant (P. carbo), which is found in Europe, Greenland, eastern 

 North America, all of Africa, and through northern Asia and the Indian penin- 

 sula to China and Australia, while others are restricted to single inlands. About 

 a dozen forms are found in North America, three or four in Europe, some five in 

 Africa, and, according to Buller, about ten in New Zealand. 



Cormorants are sociable birds, often congregating in flocks of immense size. 

 Some of the species are mainly confined to ocean shores, while others make their 

 home in inland swamps and marshes. They feed exclusively on fishes, which 

 they are extremely dexterous in capturing. They swim well and often pursue 

 their prey under water, but in general they select some post, projecting rock, or 

 branch over the water, "in a position where their powers of vision enable them to 

 discover a passing fish, upon which they pounce with a never failing aim." Its 

 captures are held securely with the sharp, hooked, horny point of the upper 

 mandible, and as the throat is greatly dilatable it can swallow fish of large size. 



During the nesting season the birds usually remain together and nest in 



