386 BRITISH BIRDS. 



13th, 1909, and then stated that, judging from the 

 descriptions given in the leading works on British birds, 

 some confusion appeared to exist respecting the changes 

 of plumage which young Cormorants undergo. Various 

 authors agree in stating that the young in first plumage 

 has the under-parts of a dirty-white, more or less speckled 

 with brown. This is undoubtedly correct, and after the 

 first autumn-moult the under-parts are considerably less 

 white. 



When I took my specimen to the British Museum for 

 comparison with those in the collection, I showed it to 

 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, who at once pronounced it to 

 be a young bird in its first plumage, notwithstanding the 

 fact that its iris was of a rich blue-green. But on looking 

 through the skins in the collection I was unable to find 

 a similar specimen, excepting a very much smaller bird 

 from India, which had previously been described as 

 a distinct species, but is now considered to be identical 

 with the Common Cormorant. 



At the meeting referred to Mr. Ogilvie-Grant stated 

 that he had not the slightest hesitation in saying that my 

 specimen was a young Cormorant still in the plumage of 

 the first year, and that the green colour of the eye did 

 not necessarily imply that the bird was adult, the eye 

 becoming green at the end of the first year. I do not 

 agree with Mr. Grant in either of these statements. 



I will here quote Mr. Grant's description of the young 

 and immature Cormorants in the British Museum " Cata- 

 logue of Birds " (Vol. XXVI. , pp. 346-7) :— Young in 

 first plumage (September), general colour above dull 

 brown, glossed on the head, neck and back with bluish- 

 green ; feathers of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts 

 with wide dark margins ; throat, front of neck, breast 

 and belly white ; sides, flanks, thighs and under tail- 

 coverts dark brownish-black. As age advances the 

 fore-part of- neck and chest become brown. In the 

 immature plumage of the second year (September) the 

 upper-parts are more like those of the adult, but less 



