THE COMMON CORMORANT. 



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(JOKMORANT. Oiacutut carlo. 



THE common CORMORANT (Phalacrocorax carbo) is well known for its voracious habits, 

 its capacities of digestion having long become proverbial. 



This bird is common on rocky coasts, where it may be. seen sitting on some projecting 

 ledge, or diving and swimming with great agility, and ever and anon returning to its resting- 

 place on the rock. It is an admirable swimmer and a good diver, and chases fish with equal 

 perseverance and success, both qualities being needful to satisfy the wants of its ever-craving 

 maw. Eels are favorite morsels with the Cormorant, which, if the eel should be small, 

 swallows it alive, in spite of the writhings and stragglings of its victim, and the many retro- 

 gressions which it will make from the interior of its devourer, until it is finally accumulated 

 and digested, the latter being a process of wonderful celerity. If the eel is rather large and 

 powerful, the Cormorant batters it against some hard substance and then swallows it easily. 

 Mr. Fortune gives a ludicrous narrative of a number of tame Cormorants and their behavior 

 at feeding-time ; how they were supplied with eels ; how they swallowed them as fast as pos- 

 sible ; how after all had disappeared, one of the swallowed eels returned into the air and was 

 immediately fought for by the birds, greatly to the discomfiture of the individual whose prop- 

 erty it had been ; and how he tried to reimburse himself by means of a similar mishap on the 

 part of some of his companions. 



This common Cormorant is common on the Labrador coast, where great numbers breed. 

 In winter it occasionally comes to New Jersey. 



The Double-crested Cormorant, commonly called Shag, inhabits the whole of North 

 America, both interior and on the sea-coast, in this differing from all other species. Its 

 length is thirty-three inches. 



The Mexican Cormorant inhabits the Southern States and southward. Palla's Cormorant 

 is found in Russian America. It is one of the largest species. Brandt's Cormorant is common 



