NOVITATBS ZOOLOGICAE XXIII. 191R. 293 



ON THE EUEOPEAN EORMS OE PBZALACBOCOBAX 



CABBO. 



By ERNST HARTE RT, Ph.D. 



IN the Catalogue of Birds, vol. xxvi., and in all recent works, even in the latest 

 critical list of British Birds by myself, Jonrdain, Ticehnrst and Witherby, only 

 one European form of Phalacrocorax carbo has been recognised. When I began to 

 study Cormorants for my work on the Palaearctic Birds it struck me at once that 

 there were evident differences in size and colour between some of them. In the 

 literature C. L. Brehm first separated the northern and central European Cor- 

 morants, and four years later Nilsson distinguished Phalacrocorax carbo major and 

 medius, saying that the latter was found on the Baltic, and nested on trees in 

 Blekinge, South Sweden, as well as in Denmark. 



However, easy as it is to recognise two distinct forms, it is not quite so simple 

 to elucidate their nomenclature and distribution. Linne {Syst. Nat., Ed. X, i. 

 p. 133, 1758) first gave the name " Pelecanus carbo" and added: "Habitat in 

 Europa," and in the Fauna Suecica 1746, p. 42, he says : " Habitat in maris 

 scopulis, arboribusqne insidet." It can hardly be doubted that Linnaeus would 

 have nnited the two forms, if he had them before his eyes, and he had evidently 

 information about both when he said that they inhabited sea-cliffs and also sat on 

 trees ; in 1758 he said, either by mistake or from some new information, " nidificat 

 in altis arboribus " ; in considering the name we may disregard this later statement 

 and stand by the first one, of 1746, restricting the name carbo for the large 

 cormorant of the size of a goose (" magnitudo anseris "), occurring on the western 

 coasts of Scandinavia, where it inhabits rocks. 



What is now the name of the smaller race of Central Europe which there, and 

 in most places of its habitat, nests on trees ? 



In February 1915 I called Prof. Lonnberg's attention to these two forms, 

 asking for information about Swedish specimens, and he most kindly answered my 

 questions, as far as he could. Prof. Lönnberg, in litt., agreed with me, that we 

 might restrict Linne s name to the larger form from the sea-cliffs of the North 

 Atlantic, and informed me that no specimens existed in Swedish Museums from the 

 former breeding-place in Blekinge, but that Nilsson's name medius must refer to 

 the smaller race — though Nilsson, unfortunately, did not mention the different 

 coloration. In an article in a popular periodical, Fauna ock Flora, 1915, Haft 3, 

 Prof. Lönnberg came to the conclusion that Brehm's name arboreus, being older 

 than that of Nilsson, would be available. In my opinion, however, it should 

 not be adopted, and the correct name, being the oldest and absolutely certain 

 one, is Brehm's subcormoranus. 



In the Handbuch der Naturgeschichte aller Vögel Deutschlands, pp. 816-20, 

 1831, C. L. Brehm distinguished four u Gattungen " or " subspecies " (cf. p. xviii. of 

 the Einleitung) of the Cormorant, as follows : 



(1) Die Kormoranscharbe. Carbo cormoranus, Meyer. 



Described as large (measurements in inches given) and having a blue-black 

 gloss. Habitat : Iceland and Norway, and young specimens sometimes visit the 



