Family PHALACROCORACIDÆ.
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.