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.