Phalacrocorax melanoleucus melanoleucus (Vieillot)
Little Pied Cormorant
Hydrocorax melanoleucos Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. Hist. Nat., 8, 1817, p. 88. (Type locality, "Australasie," restricted to New South Wales.)
Carbo melanoleucus Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, pp. 9, 118 (Pelew); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 90, 114 (Pelew).
Graculus melanoleucus Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 48 (Pelew).
Microcarbo melanoleucus Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 410 (Pelew); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 72 (Pelew).
Phalacrocorax melanoleucus Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds British Mus., 26, 1898, p. 398 (Pelew); Nehrkorn, Kat. Eiers., 1899, p. 235 (Palau); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 50 (Pelew); Uchida, Annot. Zool. Japon., 9, 1918, p. 486 (Palau).
Ph[alacrocorax] melanoleucos Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1, 1913, p. 127 (Palauinseln).
Microcarbo melanoleucus melanoleucus Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 35 (Pelew).
Microcarbo melanoleucus melvillensis Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 228 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 186 (Babelthuap, Koror).
Haliëtor melanoleucos melanoleucos Peters, Check-list Birds World, 1, 1931, p. 93 (Pelew).
Phalacrocorax melanoleucus melanoleucus Mayr, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 486, 1931, p. 5 (Pelew); Amadon, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1175, 1942, p. 2 (Palau); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, pp. 50, 284 (Palau, Marianas); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 41 (Palau).
Phalacrocorax melanoleucos melvillensis Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 207 (Pagan, Babelthuap, Koror, Angaur).
Geographic range.—Tasmania, Australia, Lesser Sunda north through Melanesia to Palau Islands. In Micronesia: Palau Islands—Babelthuap, Koror, Garakayo, Ngabad, Peleliu, Anguar.
Characters.—Adult: A small cormorant with upper parts black with dull greenish gloss; under parts white except vent and under tail-coverts which are sooty-black.
Measurements.—The author (1948: 41) gives the following measurements of two adult females from Peleliu: wing, 220 and 222; tail, 153 and 157; culmen from notch of suture between maxilla and quadratojugal bones, 35 and 36.
Specimens examined.—Total number, 15 (1 male, 12 females, 2 unsexed), as follows: Palau Islands, USNM—Peleliu, 6 (Aug. 27, Sept. 7, 10, 16); AMNH—exact locality not given, 9 (Nov. part).
Nesting.—Nehkorn (1899:235) recorded eggs taken at Palau. Some of the specimens obtained by Coultas in November, 1931, had swollen gonads. The author found no evidence of nesting in August and September, 1945, in the southern Palaus.
Food habits.—The author (1948: 41) found small fish in the stomachs of birds taken in August and September. The contents of each stomach averaged approximately 3 cc. in volume.
Parasites.—Uchida (1918:486) found the bird louse (Mallophaga), Lipeurus subsetosus, on the Little Pied Cormorant from Palau.
Remarks.—The Palaus mark the northernmost point of range of the Little Pied Cormorant. It does not occur in the Philippines and must have reached Palau from the New Guinea region. It is unknown at Yap and other "high" islands in the Carolines. A sight record of this species at Pagan in the northern Marianas, made by Orii and reported in the Hand-list of Japanese Birds (Hachisuka et al., 1942:207), may be questioned. Amadon (1942:1) has studied the races of this species and points out that there is little geographic variation in the species; it is divisible into three subspecies. One of these is confined to New Zealand. Another occurs only on Rennell Island, Solomons. The six specimens taken by the NAMRU2 party at Peleliu included only two adults, whose measurements are within the range of those studied by Amadon.
The NAMRU2 party found the birds numerously in the southern Palaus in 1945. Birds were concentrated in the areas of mangrove swamp and on the tidal flats. In August and September, they were observed frequently in groups of 10 to 15, either sitting on the ground or perched on low mangroves or dead snags sunning themselves. Coultas (field notes) received reports that they nested at a freshwater lake on the "main island" (Babelthuap?)
Ripley (1948) reports the occurrence of "about a dozen anhingas (presumably Anhinga melanogaster)" at Babelthuap on 12 November 1946.