CORMORANTS 147 



snow white throat and breast, with or without a round 

 white patch on the side just behind the angle of the 

 wing. 



A smaller species (Phalacrocorax africanus) is all black, 

 and nearly always very ragged looking ; indeed, one cannot 

 feel any affection for the cormorants, they are smelly 

 and unattractive. Natives call the smallest specimens 

 " Semirindi," the larger ones, without much white, 

 " Ensogwe," and the largest white breasted specimens are 

 named " Engadala," but most natives class them all, 

 together with the darters, as " Ensogwe." 



These birds have their regular " rookeries " where they 

 breed year after year, so that the ambatch trees on which 

 they continually perch and build their loose nests of 

 sticks become flattened down and often look very unhappy. 

 The birds when sitting on the nests have a curious habit 

 of rapidly moving in and out the loose skin of the " chin," 

 in somewhat the same way as a fowl when gasping for 

 breath in very hot weather. It is possibly due to the 

 same cause in both cases, as the cormorants sit on the 

 nests exposed to the full blaze of the sun. 



I first noticed this when watching the nesting birds on 

 the islands of the Nile at Jinja, below the falls. Cor- 

 morants abound here, and swim fearlessly about amidst 

 the turbulent eddies immediately below the actual cataract, 

 where one would think they must be beaten against the 

 rocks. 



About sunset large numbers of these birds return from 

 the lake, flying up the narrow gulf until they reach the 

 falls where the gulf becomes the river. Here, in 1910, 

 I often noticed a very curious trick of flight. 



When the leading bird of the flock arrived over the 

 falls it would suddenly close the right wing so that it 

 fell down sideways for some twenty feet or so, to recover 

 with perfect ease and resume its former steady flight. 

 Often several would do this in succession, as if playing 



