200 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



that I cannot do better than to quote what he says : 

 "When swimming he presents a curious appearance; 

 his body, as if too heavy for the element it floats in, 

 sinks like a water-locraed boat, until the back is on a 

 level with the surface. When alarmed he sinks his 

 body deeper and deeper at will, until the head and 

 long neck alone appear, looking like the head and 

 neck of a serpent swimming with body submerged." 



When Cormorants dive they are nothing like so 

 graceful as the regular Divers, which disappear 

 under the water without any effort of raising them- 

 selves ; these, on the other hand, always lift their 

 tails well out of the water, and plunge down head 

 foremost ; at times when I have seen them in the 

 distance and was not quite sure whether it was a 

 Diver or one of these I would watch for the dive, 

 and soon any doubt would be dispelled. 



The Common Cormorant, like the Shag, is very 

 fond of standing on rocky islands in estuaries of the 

 sea and such like places, and drying its wings in the 

 sun, spreading them out to their fullest extent. At 

 such times when you see a lot of both species 

 together standing thus on all the jagged rocky 

 points of these small islands — which are generally 

 devoid of all vegetation — they present a very strange 

 appearance. The Cormorant is a very voracious 

 devourer of all sorts of fish ; and has a tremendous 

 swallowing capacity. Mr. W. H. Hudson records a 

 fish of fourteen inches as having been taken from the 

 gullet of a Cormorant. In regard to nesting-habit, 

 a precipitous cliff is generally selected, but trees are 



