144 PELECANIDiE. 



all four toes united together by membranes ; claw of the middle toe serrated on 

 the inner edge. Wings of moderate length, the third quill-feather the longest. 

 Tail-feathers stiff and rigid. 



The Great Cormorant, or Black Cormorant as it is 

 sometimes called, to distinguish it from the Green Cor- 

 morant or Shag, next to be described, is found in consider- 

 able numbers on most of the rocky parts all round the coast. 

 In the Channel Islands, and, as a rule, along the south 

 coast of England, and in Wales, it is less abundant as a 

 breeding species than the Shag, but on the other hand it 

 is frequently found nesting in inland situations, which the 

 Shag is never known to do. On the eastern side of our 

 island it used formerly to nest on the trees at Reedham, in 

 Norfolk, in the time of Sir Thomas Browne, who states that 

 from there King Charles I. was wont to be supplied ; and, 

 according to the late Ptev. Richard Lubbock and Mr. Steven- 

 son, it nested within a comparatively recent period in the 

 trees around the decoy at Fritton, in Suffolk. From its 

 station on the Flamborough cliffs it had been driven by 

 persecution, but Mr. W. E. Clarke says that, owing to the 

 Sea-birds' Preservation Act, a few birds have returned to 

 their former haunts. On the Fame Islands there is a large 

 colony ; and there are numerous breeding-places along the 

 coast of Scotland. In the Shetlands it is less common than 

 the Shag, which also as a rule outnumbers it on the w^est 

 coast of Scotland and in the Hebrides ; but in Ayrshire and 

 Wigtonshire the Cormorant is in the majority, breeding on 

 the sea-cliffs and also on the inland lochs. In Wales, in 

 addition to many places on the coast, there is a celebrated 

 breeding-haunt in Merionethshire, in the valley which runs 

 up from Towyn to Cader Idris, on a bold crag about 400 feet 

 in height, known as Craig y dern, i.e., the Bird-rock. 



In Ireland the Cormorant is of ordinary occurrence, 

 breeding on many parts of the coast and also inland. 

 Thompson states that upon an island in the demesne of the 

 Earl of Shannon, Castle Martyr, County Cork, more than 

 eighty Cormorants' nests were counted in one season, on 

 Scotch fir-trees not under 60 feet in height, in which they 



