NOTES. 297 



not rise, so I shot it while swimming. Unfortunately I did not sex 

 it. It measured in the flesh : — Length, 180; wing, 6*1 ; tail 

 from vent, 3 5 ; tarsus, 1*3 ; bill at front, straight from margin of 

 feathers to point, 1*7 ; from gape, 2*0 ; mid-toe and claw, 2'8. 



" The irides were brown ; the bill very dark grey, almost 

 black ; the legs and feet grey, with blackish webs and joints/' 



This species may be recognized at any age by the tail, com- 

 posed of 18 narrow spine-like feathers, with scanty, stiff, dis- 

 united, narrow webs, quite worn off towards the tips, which 

 exhibit only the bare shafts ; the lateral feathers are succes- 

 sively shorter and shorter, so that the whole tail is sharply- 

 wedge-shaped, and owing to the nature of the feathers, which 

 are only covered for about half an inch at their bases by the 

 upper and under tail-coverts, looks poor and scraggy, much of 

 the Cormorant type, but much feebler, thinner, barer, and poorer 

 in appearance. 



Still, though the tail will suffice for identification, it 

 may be well to add to Mr, Field's remarks a detailed 

 description of his bird, as young birds like this are the most 

 likely to occur in India. The lores, forehead, crown, and upper 

 part of the occiput are a dark brown, the feathers barely per- 

 ceptibly margined at the tips with yellowish brown ; the rest 

 of the occiput and nape are nearly similar, but the pale margins 

 of the feathers are broader and more conspicuous; a broad 

 dull, white stripe, (a little speckled with brown) from the base 

 of the upper mandible on either side to near the base of the 

 occiput, but not quite meeting behind ; below this, from the 

 gape, a broad dark brown stripe, also feebly freckled with pale 

 buffy ; below this again, the rest of the cheeks, the chin and 

 throat dull white ; the neck all round grey brown, freckled 

 ■with yellowish white. 



The interscapulary region, scapulars, tertiaries, upper tail- 

 coverts, back and rump, except the central portions of the two 

 latter, a dull, pale brownish yellow or dull buff, freckled and ob- 

 soletely vermicellated with darkish brown ; the central portions 

 of back and rump dark brown, narrowly and imperfectly barred 

 with dull buff; the tail, a dull rather pale brown, earthy in 

 places, and in places with a rusty tinge ; the wings, a grey 

 brown ; primaries and their greater coverts plain ; the rest more 

 or less freckled towards the tips of the feathers with dull buff. 



The breast and the rest of the lower parts, with the basal por- 

 tions of the feathers brown, and the tips dull brownish yellow on 

 the breast, passing to buffy white lower down, and a little nearly 

 pure white about the vent. The brown bases show through, more 

 or less, everywhere, least on the upper breast, most on the lower 

 abdomen. The wing-lining is mingled French grey and white ; 

 the axillaries are pure white. 



