48 Cormorants and GMiUemois. 



those two kiDds of them only which are known hv the respective 

 names of Connorants and Guillemots. 



These two kinds of birds are ubiquitous on our English coast, 

 and are both, more especially the former, well known to the most 

 casual observer. Anyone who Tisits places on our coast where 

 rocks abound, such as the Cornish coast or the Scilly Islands, will 

 scarcely fail to see Cormorants in great numbers sitting by the 

 margin of the sea and uttering from time to time their harsh and 

 discordant notes. 



The way in which a Cormorant stands is of itself a peculiarity. 

 For the bird does not merely place himself upright upon his legs 

 but has an ingenious way of resting himself. This he accomplishes 

 bf throwing the weight of the body on to the stout quill feathers of 

 the tail, so that he rests as it were on a tripod. 



The cormorant is a bird of considerable size, standing about 

 three feet high, and is distinguished among birds as a most 

 desperate robber, tyrant, and glutton. Indeed he frequently over- 

 eats himself to such an extent that he may be seen rolling about 

 on the shore in the agonies of indigestion ; nor is this vice of 

 gluttony by anv means peculiar fo the connoranl, it is especially 

 noticeable in the siskin, which if left to itself with a plentiful supply 

 of seed will not unftequently overeat itself. 



It has been noticed by a member* of this Society in an enter- 

 taining paper, that love of dress is a marked point in the character 

 of the salmon, and the connorant is by no means free from the 

 infection. For the first two years, indeed, of his existence he is 

 attired in a suit of sober brown : but at the commencement of the 

 third veart a white collar makes its appearance on his formerly 

 dusky neck, while at the same time his thighs are adorned with 

 patches of a similar colour. This happens early in January, and 

 his newlr acquired plumage remains in unblemished purity and 

 splendour until the latter end of Februarj-. By this time the collar 

 (having been worn for two months) begins, in the natural course of 

 things to get slightly the worse for wear, and from this period it 

 gradually fades away, and finally disappears at the end of July, 

 together with the patches of white, which were before to be seen 

 on the thighs of the bird. 



We have already noticed the gluttony of the cormorant, and 

 indeed his pursuit of prey is as persevering as his capture of it, 

 when once seen, is unerring. It is with this object, I mean the pur- 

 suit of fish, that the cormorant not nnfirequently swims along with 

 his head underneath the water, for in this position he is the better 

 able, undisturbed by the ripple of the sea, to mark his prey as it 

 swims underneath. Once seen, however, it is captured to a cer- 

 • G. L. Tapper. t Tide -Tarrell, Eriu Bird*," voL m . 488. 



