3^ Cormorants 



species, and is often found in large colonies, e.g., on the Fame Islands. 

 Still, they are also found breeding in solitary state towards the top 

 of the steep cliffs, which thev choose for their homes. 



In number and appearance, the eggs are \'erv similar to those 

 of the Shag, though the egg is somewhat larger, and the number in 

 the clutch is. on the average, greater (four instead of three). The 

 young are indistinguishable from those of the Shag in the nestling 

 stage, and pass through the same phases to reach their plumage of 

 the first year. 



The Cormorant differs from the Shag in several important 

 particulars. In the first place, it does not confine itself, in the choice 

 of a nesting site, to the immediate neighbourhood of the sea. There 

 are several inland colonies, the nests being placed on steep and more 

 or less inaccessible rocks far from the sound of the sea, notablv 

 the well-known breeding-place in Merioneth. Xor do thev confine 

 themseh'es to rocks, but nest on trees — often in company with Herons 

 — in considerable numbers. 



Up to about 1825, fifty to sixty pairs nested regularlv on the 

 trees bordering Frit ton decoy in Suffolk. And at the present day, 

 there are at least three such " rookeries " — if I may use the 

 word — on islands on the Loughs of Counties Mavo, Galway, and 

 Roscommon. The nests, in these cases, are sometimes built close 

 to the ground, but more often at a considerable height (thirty feet 

 or more), large and bulk\' stuctures much better finished than the 

 nests of the rock-breeding birds. 



Unlike the Shag, they, unfortunatelv, do not confine their 

 fishing operations to the sea. There is hardly a loch in Ireland or 

 Scotland that is not poached by this bird. On the larger lochs, 

 their numbers are considerable, but even the smallest lochs seldom 

 escape the attention of at least one of these birds. They destroy, 

 of course, a very large quantity of trout, and once the Cormorant 

 has taken to inland fishing, he is very reluctant to return to the sea. 



Thev seem to acquire some sort of prescriptive right to a small 

 Highland loch — I mean that a single bird secures the fishing rights 

 from his colleagues, and is left in undisturbed possession of his 

 property. 



On the Dhubh Loch, a small piece of water in Argyllshire, with 

 which I was familiar, one Cormorant was always to be found, either 

 actively fishing or drying his wings on a rock. For some days 

 I didn't disturb him, though I was regularly up at the Loch, and I 

 never saw but the one bird. At last I took a rifle up and shot him, 

 thinking to put an end to the poaching, but there I was mistaken, for 

 on the following day when I arrived, I found another Cormorant 

 hanging out his wings on exactly the same rock as his predecessors. 

 On the following day I shot the second bird, but two or three days 

 after, a third appeared, and I then gave up the unequal contest, 

 the heirs of the first Cormorant were apparently as the sands on 

 the seashore. 



