THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
something in the water. Before alighting on a sheet of water I notice that 
they always fly round a lot, sometimes 5 or 10 minutes. They build in great 
gum trees in the swamps and billabongs of the Murray. I do not think this 
bird eats many fish. I watched two birds on a tank : one caught three small 
fish of about two and a half inches, the other two of the same length. They 
sunned themselves the rest of the day. Others I have watched are also 
small eaters.” 
Mr. Sandland writes : “ Seen occasionally at Balah, South Australia, on 
the Murray River, and also about the Burra district, but always leave the 
Burra district during the nesting season.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor notes: “This fine large white-breasted Cormorant is 
found fairly well distributed about the coastal districts and the islands of 
South Australia. I found it breeding on Pelican Island in the Coorong on 
October 1, 1894 ; here the nests were built up to the height of 18 inches with 
a hollow on top in which was tliree or four eggs, some nests were only in 
course of construction: they were composed of saltbush and sticks laid 
across and around until the pile was completed. I have seen the birds also 
on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, also in St. Vincent’s Gulf, and at the 
mouth of the Port Adelaide River. The yellowish-green skin about the 
base of the bill and eyes and light-coloured bill at once distinguishes this 
species from the preceding one, which presents a black bill and dark colouring 
in the skin about its base.” 
The present species agrees in detail with the Neozelanic P. varius 
Gmelin so well, that many workers have not differentiated the two. As a 
matter of fact the Australian bird does differ from the Neozelanic one in that 
the head, neck and back coloration has a steel-blue sheen while that of the 
latter shows oily dark green only. This difference can only be regarded as 
of subspecific value as I have here recognised it. 
The other Australian species of the genus is smaller, has the general 
coloration darker, the head and back much deeper and white feathers on the 
head and neck much pronounced. In addition, the feathering of the chin and 
sides of the face differs, as shown in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British 
Museum, Vol. XXVI., pp. 396-7, woodcuts in text, 1898, and this difference 
determined the acceptance of Vieillot’s name fuscescens for the preceding bird. 
This distinction also necessitates the rejection of Brandt’s name 
hypoleucus for the present species. This name was used by Gould in the 
Birds of Australia, but in his Handbook, p. 490, he considered the Neozelanic 
and Australian birds inseparable, and therefore used the earlier name varius 
given to the former. On p. 492, he, however, quoted Carho hypoleucus 
Brandt, with no reference, as a synonym of his own Phalacrocorax leucogaster. 
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