iVI 



THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT 



SOME birds, like some people, do not always follow the 

 good and wise habits of their forefathers. The cor- 

 morants evidently belong to this class. Having feet similar 

 to a goose's and a body that closely resembles that of a 

 duck, they have lost the custom of eating roots, grass, 

 grain, and the tender shoots of plants and turned to be 

 meat-eaters. The bill, altho not broad at the base like the 

 duck's, is stout throughout its whole length and is hooked 

 like that of a bird of prey. Cormorants differ from loons 

 and many other diving birds in that they retain strong 

 powers of flight and are able to rise out of the water almost 

 as easily as a goose or a duck. 



Doubtless because they find a better supply of food 

 there, they are confined largely to the coast and are there- 

 fore not found inland except on suitable bodies of water. 

 They live during the summer time mostly on the islands 

 off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, where they 

 congregate in great numbers. They are especially numer- 

 ous in those parts of the country that are so sterile and 

 forbidding that no man lives there and only occasional 

 fishermen come. They nest preferably on high rocky 

 cliffs, but they also build nests by the thousands along the 

 shore out of reach of tidewater. Other forms of this 



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