HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



195 



ODDITIES AMONG SEA-BIRDS. 

 By P. Q. Keegan, LL.D. 



IN low estuaries, by the margin of extensive bogs, 

 when the tidal waters have receded far into the 

 ocean, upon some long stripe of sandbank, or where 

 some stakes, posts, buoys, or outlying rocks have 

 been established, an imposing ornithological spectacle 

 may not unfrequently be observed. A muster of long, 

 lanky, long-billed, protruding-necked sea birds is 

 there drawn up in solemn state, not steady or im- 

 movable, but rather "standing at ease " in various 

 attitudes. Some of the birds seem to be lazily 

 reclining upon their breasts, in the manner of a great 

 black-backed gull ; others stand erect upon their 

 feet, supported by their stiff tail, and stare about 

 them on every side with suspicious, half-timorous, 

 ever-watchful eyes. Two or three members of the 

 flock, however, are engaged in more useful occupa- 

 tions than these, for they busily and assiduously 

 preen their plumage, arranging it in proper order 

 with their beaks, and now and then giving their 

 wings a good shake, fanning them backwards and 

 forwards, and then stick them out "anglewise " from 

 their flanks, in a curiously ludicrous fashion. 



These feathered waifs of the sea are cormorants 

 [Phalacrocorax carbo). No sooner has the receding 

 tide exposed the more elevated shingles, sandbanks, 

 &c, to view, than a long, spare bird, suspended on 

 powerful pinions, may be observed to alight thereon. 

 Another cormorant follows suit, and then another, 

 until about twenty or so, finding the quarters suitable 

 and safe, elect to occupy them for a brief season. 

 Sometimes some single, solitary, wave-tossed buoy, 

 situated in mid-channel, is observed to be surmounted 

 by a curious bird-like organism in the shape of a sable 

 cormorant, with ever-moving neck, white throat, and 

 expanded or moving wings. 



At certain periods of the tidal flow, a flock of 

 cormorants, in response to the demands of appetite, 

 resort readily to certain favourite fishing grounds — 

 places, it may be presumed, that abound lavishly 

 with the finny tribe. Great havoc is committed 

 amongst the fish. It would never answer, however, 

 if the whole of the assembled band of fishing-birds 

 were to give way to their gluttonous propensities 

 simultaneously ; for in that case an alert and ever- 

 watchful enemy (such as a human sea-fowler) might 

 possibly take advantage of this temporary blindness 

 of the cormorants, and, rushing down upon the spot, 

 post himself at convenient range for destructive 

 purposes, when the birds again appeared above the 

 surface of the water. A sentinel or two is, therefore, 

 in this case deemed indispensable ; and accordingly 

 it is observed, that one or two of the fishing flock 

 remain above, in order to warn their co-mates who 

 are taking their dinner below stairs, of the advent of 

 all dangerous and suspicious characters. Frequently 



when one of the cormorants has been unusually suc- 

 cessful in his fishing expedition, having captured a fish 

 which is rather too bulky and troublesome to manage 

 whilst afloat, he retires to some rock or adjacent 

 sandy beach, where the process of killing, dissecting, 

 and devouring, may be conducted with greater facility. 

 The wandering lover of cliff and shore scenery may 

 frequently encounter, in some quiet retired recess 

 or inlet of the rocks, one or two cormorants busily 

 engaged in the operation of gorging their maws and 

 stomachs with fishy food, the product of the sea. 



The birds now under review, in addition to the 

 clownish or ludicrous spectacle they furnish in the 

 aforesaid method of preening their feathers, and of 

 expanding and hanging out their wings to dry, 

 exhibit also juggling or acrobatic talents of no mean 

 order. Observe cormorants while engaged in their 

 favourite occupation of fishing. A bird, after remain- 

 ing in the depths of the sea perhaps for half a minute, 

 and descending, it may be, over one hundred feet, 

 appears upon the surface, triumphantly bearing in his 

 long, hooked bill, a large fish (say an eel) grasped by 

 the tail. Now, this fish being a slippery customer, 

 the tail end thereof is not the most secure part 

 whereby to retain it. Accordingly, the hapless finny 

 creature is tossed upwards in the air, about a foot or 

 so, in the manner followed by a circus juggler or 

 acrobat, neatly caught head foremost as it descends, 

 and forthwith discharged into the capacious gullet of 

 the ravenous, all-devouring sea bird. 



Let us now suppose that a sea-fowler of more than 

 ordinary astuteness and perseverance, has approached 

 within gunshot range of a locality or post, such as a 

 wreck, a waste of surfy sand, a wave-lashed reef of 

 rocks, etc., where a company of cormorants (either of 

 the common or the crested species) is ranged for the 

 combined purpose of reposing, digesting, and drying. 

 He fires, when, lo and behold ! what a dismal havoc 

 has been apparently committed ! The whole band, 

 comprising, perhaps, some nine or ten fine birds, fall 

 heavily, and apparently lifelessly, downwards into 

 the water, and forthwith disappear as if into a watery 

 grave. " Ah ! what a pity it is to have slain so many 

 beautiful and innocent creatures ! " the green-hearted 

 sportsman thinks, and perhaps also exclaims; "but 

 then I have done well, very well indeed. I think I 

 had better write to the Field forthwith," &c. This 

 grateful elation of sporting pride is doomed, however, 

 to be but momentary ; for presently, in the vicinity 

 of the spot where the "poor slaughtered" cormorants 

 sunk, a curious array of beak-like protuberances 

 appear above the sea. The extreme end of a hooked 

 appendage, succeeded perhaps also by a small portion 

 of a snake-like neck, is cautiously thrust above the 

 tide with a sort of a knowing toss, a jeering look, and 

 a general aspect sufficiently indicative of the general 

 fact that the bird to which it appertains is yet " alive 

 and kicking." Another and another head and neck 

 appear in the same mysterious manner from the 



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