GREAT CORMORANT. 389 



manner as Turkeys and most land-birds act, when scattering 

 up the dry warm earth or sand over them. The water- 

 birds, after thus cleaning themselves, remove, if perchers 

 and able to fly, to the branches of trees, spread out their 

 wings and tail in the sun, and after a while dress their 

 plumage. Those w^hich are not perchers, or whose wings 

 are too wet, swim to the shores, or to such banks or rocks 

 as are above water, and there perform the same process." 



This species is not nearly so common in the Hebrides, or 

 along the western and northern coasts of Scotland, as the 

 Crested Cormorant. In Shetland, as Dr. Edmondston in- 

 forms me, "it is pretty numerous, though not by far so 

 much so as the Shag. It is," he continues, " social in the 

 breeding season, several pairs having their nests near each 

 other on the same cliff", and at a greater altitude than the 

 other species. It also at other seasons perches and roosts in 

 higher situations, and has a more lofty and easy flight. Its 

 mode of diving is somew^hat like that of the Great Northern 

 Diver, gliding gently under, not like the Shag, ^jer saltum. 

 It is very easily tamed, and displays great sagacity, gentle- 

 ness, and affection. I see no reason why it might not be 

 made of as great use as its fishing relative in China. The 

 young often frequent fresh-water lochs. It is a beautiful, 

 intelligent, and interesting bird, and does not deserve the 

 popular odium which Milton — it may be justly as a poet, 

 but most unjustly as a naturalist — has affixed to it. It pro- 

 duces usually three, seldom four young." Mr. Low says it 

 " is very frequent " in Orkney, " both in salt and fresh 

 water; continues all the year, living on fish, of which it 

 destroys great numbers. The Corvorant seems to have but 

 little other concern than how to eat enough ; it is, indeed, 

 surprising what quantities of fish it Avill gorge itself Avith, 

 and, Avhen it has filled itself to the throat, retires to some 

 point, where it sits till hunger compels it to the water 

 again." I have seen Cormorants at the entrance of the 

 Cromarty Firth, and on various parts of the coast, as far 

 south as the Firth of Forth, on the rocky islands of which 

 they are not uncommon. Some rocks off" Seafield Tower, 

 near Kirkaldy, are a favourite resting-place with this and 



