386 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
of these birds took up their abode in the country of Neudorf, near 
the town of Leutjenbourg, and settled in a wood close to the sea, on 
some large beech trees, which for many years had been the resort 
of a number of herons and rooks. These the cormorants 
drove from their nests, and they laid their own eggs in May and 
again in July; in the autumn they quitted the country. The 
THE COMMON CORMORANT, 
Phalacrocorax carbo.) 
number then had increased to thirty. During the spring of 1813, 
and for some years after, they returned regularly, and it was soon 
calculated that there were 7,000 pairs. In the month of June, 1815, 
hundreds of nests might be seen on different trees, and innumerable 
flights of cormorants, mingling with herons, filled the air with 
their hoarse cries. Their excrements destroyed the foliage of the 
trees; and the refuse of bad fish, with which they strewed the 
land, poisoned the atmosphere for some distance around. By 
order of the government, they were driven away. Five hundred 
