87 



CARBO PERSPICILLATUS ( pall.) 



(Plate 39.) 



Phalacrocorax perspicillatus Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso.-Asiat. II, p. 305 (1827 — Berings Island) ; 



Gould, Zool. Voy. Sulphur, p. 49, pi. XXXII (1844) ; Stejneger, Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., 



No. 29, p. 180 (1885) ; id. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. XII, pp. 83-94, pis. II-IV (1889— 



Osteology) ; Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXVI, p. 357 (1898). 

 Graculus perspicillatus Elliot, New and heret. unfig. sp. N. Amer. B. II, part 14, No. 3, 



text and plate (1869). 



Pallasicarbo perspicillatus Coues, Osprey III, p. 144 (1899). 



PALLAS gives the first recognizable description of this bird, which, 

 as translated from the Latin, is as follows: "Of the size of a very- 

 large goose. Of the shape of the former (sc. Cormorants), which 

 it also resembles in the white patches on the flanks. The body is entirely 

 black. A few long, white, narrow pendant plumes round the neck, as in 

 Herons. Occiput with a huge tuft, doubly crested. Skin round the base 

 of the bill bare, red, blue and white, mixed, as in a turkey. Round the 

 eyes a thick, bare white patch of skin, about six lines wide, like a pair of 

 spectacles. Weight 12 to 14 pounds. Female smaller, without crest and 

 spectacles. (From Steller.) " 



Steller, who was shipwrecked on Bering Island in 1741, was the 

 discoverer of C. perspicillatus, and Pallas took his diagnosis from Steller's 

 notes. 



The Spectacled or Pallas's Cormorant is one of the rarest of all birds. 

 It is generally said that four specimens are known, but five are really in 

 existence: Two in the St. Petersburg Museum, one in Leyden, and two in 

 London. One of these latter is perfect, while the other has no tail. Probably all 

 five have been obtained by Kuprianoff, the Russian Governor at Sitka, who, 

 in 1839, gave one to Captain Belcher, and sent some others to St. Petersburg. 

 The careful researches of Stejneger and others on Bering Island have 

 clearly shown that this Cormorant exists no longer. Formerly it is said to 

 have been numerous, but the natives were fond of its flesh, which formed 

 their principal diet when other meat was difficult to obtain. Probably it 

 would not so soon have become extinct if it had not been that their rather 

 short wings resulted in a certain slowness of locomotion on land and in the 

 air. A good description is given in the Catalogue of Birds, and a still 

 more detailed one by Stejneger (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1899, p. 86) from 

 Brandt's manuscript. 



Habitat: Bering Island. 



