VIOLET-GREEN CORMORANT. 149 



Plumage silky, being very soft, blended, and highly glossed. Fea- 

 thers of the head and neck oblong, of the other parts ovate and rounded. 

 The small gular sac, and the space before and beneath the eye, with 

 the eyelids, bare. Wings rather small, broad ; primaries curved ; in the 

 only individual in my possession, in which they are not fully developed, 

 the first is an inch, and four and a half twelfths shorter than the se- 

 cond, which is longest, but exceeds the third only by a twelfth ; secon- 

 daries broadly rounded. Tail of moderate length, very narrow, much 

 rounded or cuneate, lateral feathers being an inch and ten-twelfths 

 shorter than the middle; the feathers, twelve in number, are narrow, with 

 very strong shafts. 



Bill dusky, gular sac and bare skin about the eyes orange. Iris 

 light green. Feet black. The general colour of the plumage is deep 

 green, seeming black in some lights, and bright green and purple in 

 others. Along the sides of the neck and the hind part of the sides of 

 the body, are scattered numerous white piliform feathers terminated 

 by a pencil of filaments. The quills and tail-feathers are brownish- 

 black, and less glossy. 



Length to end of tail 27 inches ; bill along the ridge H^, along the 

 edge of lower mandible 2j% ; wing from flexure 10 ; tail 5^ ; tarsus 1 j% ; 

 hind toe i§, its claw || ; second toe 1^^, its claw /| ; third toe 2i, its 

 claw j% ; fourth toe 3 \, its claw i\. 



TOWNSEND'S CORMORANT. 



PHALACROCORAX TOWNSENDI. 



PLATE CCCCXII. Fig. 2. Male. 



Two specimens of the Cormorant here represented were sent to me 

 by Dr Townsend, who procured them at Cape Disappointment in the 

 beginning of October 1836. They are both marked as males, and 

 agree nearly in colour, but differ somewhat in the length of the bill, 

 and in the extent of the bare space at its base. One of them seems 

 to be in its first plumage, the other in that of the adult. Nothing, 



