Rozinson & Kxioss : Birds of West Sumatra. 221 
breed every year in the dense ferns (Gleichenia) round 
the lake. The eggs are collected by the natives and hatched 
under tame ducks. These domesticated A. superciliosa 
freely mate with the common duck, and the offspring can 
hardly be told from the wild parents. By the natives round 
the Lake of Singkarak in the Padang Highlands, I was told 
that the ondan was seen there occasionally in the wet 
seasons (April-May and October-December), but I did not 
observe it there myself. 
PHALACROCORACIDAE. 
49. Phalacrocorax carbo (Linn.). 
@, 22 imm. Lake of Singkarak, Padang High- 
lands, 400 M. 
Iris sea green; orbital skin and gular pouch dark 
yellow ; upper mandible brownish black, tip and tomium 
pinkish horn with a blackish tint ; lower mandible pinkish 
horn, tip blackish ; feet black. The immature birds have 
the bill pinkish horn with the culmen brownish black and 
the tip whitish. 
Wings 327, 318, 308 mm. 
The immature birds are in advanced first plumage with 
a considerable amount of brown on foreneck and breast. 
Several races of this cormorant are now recognised : 
our birds are probably sinensis (Shaw and Nodder) from 
China ; but for lack of comparative material we cannot 
determine them subspecifically. 
According to the natives and some European sports- 
men, cormorants used to be fairly numerous on the Lake 
of Singkarak, but they have been destroyed and driven 
away. When I visited the lake in June 1914, I found near 
the southern extremity a family of four, consisting of a 
full grown pair and two young birds. The natives told 
me, that the cormorants used to nest on some coconut-trees 
at the village of Panjinggahan, near the western border of 
the lake, and there also they roosted at night. I succeeded 
in shooting two of them on the lake, the remaining two 
were killed by a native while they were roosting on the 
above mentioned spot. One of the old birds tumbled into 
the lake and was lost. Later on I heard that there were 
no more cormorants to be found on the lake, so I fear 
I have killed the last survivors of the colony. On the 
Danau di Atas near Alahan Pandjang, and on the Lake of 
Korinchi cormorants are seen occasionally, but they never 
stop there for long. It seems, therefore, that the birds 
visit the Padang Highlands and Korinchi on their migration 
from some other lake in Sumatra, or from an island in the 
Straits of Malacca. 
