Part 77

Bill long and heavy; basal portion of culmen slightly concave, tip strongly decurved and hooked; neck rather long; wings ample but not reaching beyond base of tail, the latter rather long, its feathers graduated and stiff; plumage largely black, at times partly white.

Genus PHALACROCORAX Brisson, 1760.

Characters same as those given for the Family.

166. PHALACROCORAX CARBO (Linnæus).

COMMON CORMORANT.

Pelecanus carbo Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 133. Phalacrocorax carbo Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 340, text fig. 1; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 198; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 232; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 39.

Ca-sí-li, Manila, also applied to the darter.

Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (McGregor); Ticao (McGregor). Europe, Africa, northern Asia, Greenland; eastern North America south to Georgia; Indian Peninsula to China and Australia.

Adult in breeding plumage.--Almost entirely black, with a slight oil-green gloss on neck and under parts; chin dirty white, this color continued backward and upward on each side of neck to back of eye, forming a border, 20 mm. wide, to the gular pouch and naked skin below eye; entire crown, nape, neck on all sides, and throat decorated with long, narrow, soft, white plumes which hide most of the short black feathers; crest glossy black, narrow and about 40 mm. long; each flank decorated with a large patch of long, soft, white feathers; upper back, scapulars, and wing-coverts dull bronze-brown, each feather widely bordered with dark bluish green or with glossy black; quills brownish black; secondaries washed with greenish; tail and its coverts black.

Grant gives the following colors and measurements: "Iris bright emerald-green; naked skin round eye greenish brown; below the eye and on gular sack lemon-yellow; bill grayish brown; dusky along culmen and yellowish white toward base; legs and feet blackish. Length, about 914; culmen, 58 to 81; wing, 317 to 356; tail, 173 to 183; tarsus, 58 to 72."

Adult in non-breeding plumage.--Similar to the above but without the elongated feathers on head, neck, throat, and flanks.

"Young when first hatched are blind and covered with purplish black skin; in the course of a few days they acquire a thick covering of blackish down.

"Young in first plumage (September).--General color above dull brown, somewhat glossed on head, neck, and back with bluish green; feathers of back, scapulars, and wing-coverts with wide dark margins; throat, front of neck, breast and belly white; sides, flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts dark brownish black. As age advances the fore part of neck and chest become brown.

"Plumage of the second year (September).--Upper parts more like those of the adult, but the plumage is less brilliant and mixed here and there with feathers of the first plumage; feathers of the breast and belly are all widely tipped with brownish black, giving these parts a mottled appearance.

"Plumage of the third year (May).--Similar to the adult, but the color of upper parts is less brilliant, and the under parts are not of such a rich glossy black. Birds of this age (probably about 26 months old), though they do not breed, assume a partial breeding-plumage; the hair-like feathers on the head and neck being indicated, while the white flank patches are partially acquired." (Grant.)

The cormorant appears to be somewhat rare in the Philippines but it will perhaps be found breeding in some of the extensive marsh-lands of central Luzon. A fully adult male in breeding plumage, taken in Tarlac Province, yields the following data: Iris bright sea-green; small spots of bright blue along edges of eyelids and below eye; bare skin below eye bright yellow with a slight orange tinge, this yellow extending to behind angle of mouth and onto base of lower mandible; entire gular pouch dark, almost blackish brown, closely covered with yellow spots; a small area just back of angle of gonys solid yellow; upper mandible blackish brown; lower mandible white with terminal third dusky brown; legs and nails black. Length, 850; wing, 345; tail, 180; culmen, 66; tarsus, 60; middle toe with claw, 85.

Family ANHINGIDÆ.

Bill long, slender, straight, and sharply pointed, cutting edges near tip with distinct serrations; head small; neck long and slender; tail long; scapular feathers lanceolate; a pair of inner secondaries and the innermost pair of rectrices with outer webs pliciform.

Genus ANHINGA Brisson, 1760.

Characters same as those given for the Family.

167. ANHINGA MELANOGASTER Pennant.

INDIAN DARTER.

Anhinga melanogaster Pennant, Indian Zool. (1769), 13, pl. 12; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 39. Plotus melanogaster Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 414; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 344, fig. 78; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 236; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 207.

Ca-sí-li, Manila, also used for the cormorant.

Luzon (Meyer, McGregor); Mindanao (Mearns, Clemens); Mindoro (Steere Exp., Schmacker, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor, Porter); Negros (Layard). Mesopotamia, Indian Peninsula, Indo-Chinese countries, Indo-Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Celebes.

"Adult male.--Chin, throat, and upper part of fore neck mottled with white; a narrow white line, about 125 mm. long, commencing above gape and continued down sides of neck; head and neck brown, darker and slightly glossed on the crown and along the back of the neck, paler down the middle of fore neck, each feather being margined with pale brown and giving the whole a finely scaled appearance; upper back brownish black, each feather narrowly margined with rufescent and streaked with white on the lateral parts; rest of back, rump, lower part of fore neck, and under parts black with an oil-green gloss; wing-coverts, scapulars, and innermost secondaries black, each with a long, silvery white streak down the middle; scapulars much elongated and pointed, the longest measuring about 230 mm.; innermost secondary transversely ribbed along the basal two-thirds of outer web; quills and tail black, the middle pair of tail-feathers strongly ribbed on outer web and outer pairs slightly rayed. Tail composed of twelve feathers. 'Iris yellow; bill dusky on culmen, yellowish on sides and on lower mandible; legs black.' (Godwin-Austen.) Length, about 890; culmen, from feathers on forehead, 89 to 91; wing, 330 to 355; tail, 218 to 230; tarsus, 43; outer toe with claw, 81.

"The fully adult female (if the sex of several specimens in the British Museum is correctly determined) appears to be perfectly similar in plumage to the male, the only difference being that the bill is decidedly shorter, 79 to 81 mm. In some females, however, which appear to be perfectly adult, the black bases of the fore neck and the chest are divided on either side from the back by a whitish buff band, as in immature birds.

"Immature birds.--General color as in the adult, but neck much lighter and of a pale brownish white, becoming white down the middle of the fore neck; black at base of fore neck and chest bordered on each side by a whitish buff band; streaks on the upper plumage of a more yellowish white, long pointed scapulars absent or half developed; quills and tail-feathers pointed and narrowly margined at the tips with pale whitish brown; ribs on innermost scapulars and tail-feathers but slightly indicated; back, rump, and upper tail-coverts brownish black.