70 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



The nests are generally slight, often trodden out of all shape, 

 and smell most offensively. They are made of seaweed picked up 

 from the waves below, bunches of turf pulled up from the summit 

 of the cliffs, and a few straws. They are very shallow, and, as the 

 materials of which they are composed wear aw T ay, they are con- 

 stantly added to. The eggs of the Gannet, seen through the 

 hole when held up to the light, are emerald-green inside, and 

 occasionally traces of this colour can be seen on the outside ; but 

 usually the surface is thickly coated over with a layer of white, 

 which in some places appears to be very clumsily laid on. The)' 

 are nearly uniform ovals, and vary in length from 3-4 to 2 - 8 

 inches, and in breadth from 2'15 to 1'85 inch. 



THE COKMOEANT. 

 (Phalacrocorax carbo.) 



Plate 19, Fig. 2, 



A common resident in the British Islands, breeding in all 

 suitable districts from the Shetlands to Cornwall, and from St. 

 Kilda to the south of Ireland ; some of its breeding stations are 

 also found inland. The Cormorant inhabits the entire Palaearctic 

 region, and breeds as far south as the Mediterranean countries, 

 and eastwards in Central Asia, X. W. India, and the Burmese 

 Provinces. 



The nest is a large structure of sticks and sea-weed, those 

 examined by me on the Fame Islands being one or two feet high 

 and composed entirely of sea- weed ; they were generally lined 

 with the fresh green leaves of the sea-parsley and other maritime 

 plants. Those I saw on the Horster Meer, in Holland, were 

 piles of sticks and reeds from one to four feet high, and were 

 lined with a little green grass. It appears that a new T nest is 

 built every year on the ruins of the old one. 



The eggs, when held up to the light, are emerald-green, like 

 those of the Gannet, and the white coating is sometimes as thick 

 as in the eggs of the latter bird, but the green can always be 

 more or less seen through it in patches. They differ very 

 slightly from eggs of the Gannet, but are smaller in size and 

 slightly more elongated in shape, varying in length from 29 to 

 24 inches, and in breadth from 1*75 to 1"5 inch. 



