THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



COMMON CORMORANT. 

 Phalacrocorax carbo (Z.). 



Resident, breeding on the cliffs between Whitby and Scarborough, 

 and near Filey ; formerly nested in several other localities. The 

 majority retire southward in winter. 



The earliest allusion to the Cormorant in Yorkshire was 

 made by Pennant, who, on his journey to Scotland in 1769, 

 visited Flamborough on July 3rd, and remarked of the birds 

 there : — " Multitudes were swimming about, others swarmed 

 in the air, and almost stunned us with the variety of their 

 croaks and screams ; I observed among them Corvorants." 

 (" A Tour in Scotland," 1771, p. 15.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Phalacrocorax carbo. — Common Cormorant — Frequent off Scar- 

 borough ; a specimen of this bird was taken at Kexby, six miles from 

 York, by a person who was angling for pike ; he had left his line 

 for a few minutes fastened to the banks of the Derwent, on his return 

 he saw the bird sitting on the bank, and, on reaching it, found it had 

 dived, swallowed the bait, and was held fast by the line. A. Strickland 

 says that it breeds upon the cliffs at Flamborough, but appears greatly 

 to have diminished of late years. 



Although designated as resident in the county, the 

 majority of our Great Cormorants leave the Yorkshire coast 

 and move southward as winter approaches, returning in spring 

 to their nesting quarters. In the north a colony formerly 

 existed on Huntcliffe, near Saltburn, and the late C. C. Oxley 

 informed me that, when he lived at Redcar, he could, in a 

 good light, and by the aid of a powerful telescope, recognise 

 the birds sitting on their nests, although fully five miles 



VOL. II. B 



