CORMORANTS 283 



of remarkable beauty, being of a bright emerald 

 green. 



Although the usual habit of this bird, as well as 

 the Shag, is to breed on the ledges of sea cliffs, the 

 Cormorant not only perches on trees, but even nests 

 in them. This was formerly the case at Reedham in 

 Norfolk, as noticed by Sir Thomas Browne (1682) ; 

 around the decoy at Fritton in Suffolk, as mentioned 

 by Richard Lubbock (1845), and at several fresh- 

 water loughs in Ireland (Zool., 1882, p. 67). On an 

 island in a lake in the Mayo mountains a large 

 colony of Cormorants breed annually in trees (yew, 

 birch, and holly of great age), the nests being 

 formed of coarse heather stems. These birds also 

 nest on trees (ash) on Lough Key, Co. Roscom- 

 mon. See Ussher, "Birds of L'eland," p. 153, 

 where a photograph of the nests is reproduced. 



On the Fame Islands I found Cormorants breed- 

 ing on the ground, the huge nests of seaweed so 

 accessible that I had only to stoop to pick up the 

 eggs. At the Horster Meer in Holland, Seebohm 

 found Cormorants' nests in willow bushes {Zool., 

 1880, p. 460). The birds themselves were there "in 

 hundreds," as well as a large flock of Spoonbills. 

 In 1882 a pair of Cormorants which had been 

 trained for fishing by Capt. F. H. Salvin were tem- 

 porarily deposited by him in the Zoological Gardens, 

 Regent's Park, where, to the surprise of every one, 

 they paired, made a nest, and reared their young 

 {Field, May 27, 1882). 



Having had frequent opportunities of observing 



