Cormorants 33 



slack, or the water becomes, for some reason, unsuitable, and one 

 sees them, one after the other, rising heavily from the water and 

 making off to some favourite rock, often a half-tide rock, which they 

 use as a kind of clubland. On one or two such rocks, all the 

 Cormorants in the neighbourliood generally gather, and there, 

 for the next three or four hours, the\- continue to sit, especially on 

 a fine bright day, digesting their meal and hanging their wings out 

 to dr\-. This is, I suppose, a necessary proceeding after their long 

 and more or less continuous immersion in the water. Thirty or 

 more of these birds all standing up with their wings fully extended 

 on one rock, form a most absurd sight. E\-en on a bright day, 

 the sun seems to take a considerable time in drying th(> feathers, so 

 that the\' maintain the same position often for an hour or more at 

 a stretch. 



Presently the tide changes, and their instinct teaches them 

 that the water is again in a lit condition for fishing, and they begin 

 to lumber off again to their duties, some simply slipping down the 

 rock and commencing operations at once, others taking to the wing, 

 and making for more distant grounds. If the club-rock is of any 

 height, the birds, as it were, throw themselves off, and get sufficient 

 power with their wings before they reach the water, to keep them- 

 seh-es from touching it, and gradually rise again to the level they 

 usually maintain when flying. If the rock is low, however, they 

 cannot get sufficient impetus on, and hit the water and spatter 

 along the surface for some distance, only rising to their proper le\-el 

 after 15 or 20 yards. 



The Shag rises \-er}' hea\'ily and clumsily from the water, a 

 fact of which it is fully aware, but once fairly started, the flight of 

 the bird is strong and rapid, much more so, indeed, than its appear- 

 ance suggests. If you come unexpectedly right on top of a Shag, 

 which has no warning of your approach, as, for instance, in sailing 

 round some rocky promontor}', he never attempts to fly in the first 

 instance. He dives at once, comes up again some 70 or 80 yards 

 away, and then flaps along the surface of the w-ater for some distance, 

 until he has acquired sufficient impetus to raise his bodv in the air. 

 If, on the other hand, you sail near to a flock of these birds in 

 the open, they will not allow you to approach nearer than 60 or 

 70 yards, and then they all take to wing. 



My point is that their instinct teaches them that, in an 

 emergency, diving is the only safe way of avoiding a danger suddenly 

 sprung upon them. 



The Shag's — and, indeed, all the Cormorants'- method of diving 

 is absolutel}' characteristic. He really springs right out of the water, 

 turns over in the air, and takes a noiseless header ; but the body is 

 so close to the water throughout this manoeuvre, and the action is 

 so quick, easy and free of effort, that one hardl}- follows the middle 

 stage where the body of the bird is really out of water altogether, 

 the moment when his paddles are just leaving the water with his 



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