_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.
=Fregata minor minor= (Gmelin)