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.