11 84 PHALACROCORAX CARBO. 



In Burmah, where this species breeds in large numbers, the white flank-spot is said by Mr. Oates (and, I apprehend, 

 the filamentous feathers too) to be acquired iu September (the eggs being laid in October) and doffed again in 

 the beginning of December. In the north-west of India, Mr. Doig saw many specimens which had lost the 

 white neck-plumes in November, but still retained the thigh-spot. A specimen shot in January at Jaffna has 

 the neck, but not the head, covered with the white feathers and a scanty white flank-spot ; from the distribution 

 of the remaining feathers they are apparently being doffed, and not donned, so that the bird would appear to have 

 bred at some place not far distant. 



After the disappearance of the white neck- and flank-feathers the ground-colour of the pouch appears to get paler, aud 

 the entire skin becomes yellow, these differences constituting the winter plumage. 



Young (callow nestling males). Skin blackish slaty, the crown reddish, but the skin round the closed eye bluish, with a 

 dark streak over the eye ; bill — upper mandible dusky fleshy, a white spot at the curve of the tip, behind which there 

 is a black patch ; tip of the under mandible blackish, the remainder with the pouch yellowish fleshy ; legs and feet 

 fleshy yellow, the claws black ; the tibial skin concolorous with that of the body. 



In about a fortnight the young are covered with down. The iris is then grey, tinged with greenish ; forehead naked, 

 the skin bluish or fleshy grey ; the culmen and edge of lower mandible black-brown, the tip pale fleshy ; remainder 

 of bill fleshy, yellowish next the pouch, which is fleshy yellow; front of tarsus aud top of toes dark brown ; rest 

 of legs and webs fleshy yellow. The down is sooty black above and beneath ; occasionally individuals have patches 

 of white down on the under surface. At this period the young are about the size of a small Duck, but the body is 

 louger. The average weight of six examples was 2\ lbs., some weighing as much as 2| lbs. 



On leaving the nest the bird is in the plumage of the first year, during which period the full dimensions are attained. 

 Examples in the flesh, about one year old, measured — Length 35-5 to 36-0 inches ; wing 13'5 to 14*0, expanse 

 57 - 5 ; tarsus 2-5 : outer toe 4-5 : bill to gape (straight) 4-2 to 4-5 : weight of a male 7 lbs. 



Iris pale grey, sometimes tinged with greenish ; orbital skin brownish yellow ; loral skin dull greenish yellow ; gular 

 pouch entirely gamboge-yellow ; bill as in the adult, as also the legs. 



white ; neck mottled brown and white ; from neck to vent brownish black, with a good deal of white on the 

 breast and abdomen, the latter almost all white in the region of the belly; thigh-coverts, like the back, black, 

 glossed with green ; lower tail-coverts dark brownish black ; under wiug-coverts aud flanks brownish black." 

 (Butler.) 



The nestling, as in the last species, is in all probability covered with blackish down. 



Obs. KTever having procured this species while iu Ceylon, and being unable to detect specimens in the British 

 Museum, or in any collections to which I have access in England, 1 have been, I regret to say, obliged to transcribe 

 the entire descriptions from the writings of other naturalists. There is a mounted specimen in the British 

 Museum of an immature Cormorant, of rather diminutive size, from China, which at first sight might be taken for 

 the present species ; but it is, in my opinion, merely a rather small example of the last. The wing measures 12*8 

 inches ; tail 7'0 ; bill to gape 3-5 ; tarsus 2-0. Neither Swinhoe nor David include this species in the avifauna 

 of China, and it is therefore probable that the P. sinensis of Shaw was nothing more than the Common Cormorant. 



Distribution. — This species, so far as I could ascertain, is a rare bird in Ceylon. Layard remarks that he saw a few 

 ou the fishing-kraaK in the Jaffna estuary in company with the next species. Mr. Holdsworth did not meet with it at 

 all ; and although I have seen at a short distance a few birds which I identified at the time as the Lesser Cormorant, I 

 have never shot it. On one occasion I met with a pair of Cormorants which were perched on stakes in the Tamara 

 kulam, near Trincomalie, which were intermediate in size between the large and small species, and which were near 

 enough for me to discern that they were in immature plumage ; at other times I have seen similar birds in one or two 

 tanks in the interior; and I have no doubt that they all belonged to the present species. It is well to remark, with 

 regard to Layard's identification, that the birds he saw on the estuary (salt water) near Jaffna may have been examples of 

 the Common Cormorant, which was at that time not known to visit the island. As I caunot ascertain that specimens 

 have ever really been procured, I place this species in a footnote article. 



Jerdon speaks of this Cormorant being equally widely distributed in India with the last, and even more generally 

 spread than that species, he having procured it in the Carnatic, Tickell in Central India, and Blyth in Bengal and 

 Burmah. Mr. Hume, however, writing in 'Nests and Eggs,' takes exception to this statement, aud at the time he writes 



