XXII 

 CORMORANTS 



CORMORANTS, like Englishmen, have 

 spread themselves all over the earth. 

 Save for a few out-of-the-way islands, 

 there is no country in the world that 

 cannot boast of at least one species of cormorant. 

 Cormorants, then, are an exceedingly successful and 

 flourishing family. It must be very annoying for 

 those worthy professors and museum naturalists who 

 are always lecturing to us about the all-importance 

 of protective colouration that the most flourishing 

 families of birds — the crows and the cormorants — are 

 as conspicuous as it is possible for a thing in feathers 

 to be. 



Mr. Seton Thompson well says that every animal has 

 some strong point, or it could not exist ; and some 

 weak point, or the other animals could not exist. 

 Cormorants have several strong points, and that is 

 why they flourish hke the green bay tree, notwith- 

 standing their conspicuous plumage. They are as 

 hardy as the Scotchman, as voracious as the ostrich, as 

 tenacious of Hfe as a cat, to say nothing of being pis- 

 catorial experts, powerful fliers, and champion divers. 



