(PLATE 39.)
_Phalacrocorax perspicillatus_ Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso.-Asiat. II, p. 305
(1827--Berings Island); Gould, Zool. Voy. Sulphur, p. 49, pl. XXXII
(1844); Stejneger, Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 29, p. 180 (1885); id.
Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. XII, pp. 83-94, pls. II-IV (1889--Osteology);
Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXVI, p. 357 (1898).
_Graculus perspicillatus_ Elliot, New and heret. unfig. sp. N. Amer. B.
II, part 14, No. 3, text and plate (1869).
_Pallasicarbo perspicillatus_ Coues, Osprey III, p. 144 (1899).
Pallas gives the first recognizable description of this bird, which, as
translated from the Latin, is as follows: "Of the size of a very large
goose. Of the shape of the former (sc. Cormorants), which it also resembles
in the white patches on the flanks. The body is entirely black. A few long,
white, narrow pendant plumes round the neck, as in Herons. Occiput with a
huge tuft, doubly crested. Skin round the base of the bill bare, red, blue
and white, mixed, as in a turkey. Round the eyes a thick, bare white patch
of skin, about six lines wide, like a pair of spectacles. Weight 12 to 14
pounds. Female smaller, without crest and spectacles. (From Steller.)"
Steller, who was shipwrecked on Bering Island in 1741, was the discoverer
of _C. perspicillatus_, and Pallas took his diagnosis from Steller's notes.
The Spectacled or Pallas's Cormorant is one of the rarest of all birds. It
is generally said that four specimens are known, but five are really in
existence: Two in the St. Petersburg Museum, one in Leyden, and two in
London. One of these latter is perfect, while the other has no tail.
Probably all five have been obtained by Kuprianoff, the Russian Governor at
Sitka, who, in 1839, gave one to Captain Belcher, and sent some others to
St. Petersburg. The careful researches of Stejneger and others on Bering
Island have clearly shown that this Cormorant exists no longer. Formerly it
is said to have been numerous, but the natives were fond of its flesh,
which formed their principal diet when other meat was difficult to obtain.
Probably it would not so soon have become extinct if it had not been that
their rather short wings resulted in a certain slowness of locomotion on
land and in the air. A good description is given in the Catalogue of Birds,
and a still more detailed one by Stejneger (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1899, p.
86) from Brandt's manuscript.