Characters same as those given for the Family.
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.