STEGANOPODES. ( 30 ) PELECANID.-E. 



THE COMMON CORMORANT. 



BLACK COEMORANT, GREAT CORMORANT, WHITE-HEADED 



CORMORANT, AVHITE SPOT CORMORANT, GREAT 



SCART OR SCARVE, COAL GOOSE. 



PhalacTocorax carho. 

 ^Ije Black, oc cLcllatclj, or ^tait Cormorant, djc »)cart.^ 



Even as the matron at her nightly task, 

 With pensive labour draws the flaxen thread, 

 The wasted taper a?td t/ie crackling flame 

 Foretell the blast. But chief the plumy race. 

 The te7iants of the sky, its changes speak. 

 Retiring from the downs, where all day long 

 They pick! d their scanty fare, a blackening train 

 Of clamrous Rooks thick-urge their weary flight. 

 And seek the closing shelter of the grove ; 

 Assiduous, iti his bower, the wailing Owl 

 Plies his sad song. The Cormorant on high 

 Wheels from the deep, and screams alotig the land. 



Thomson, Winter. 



Although the Common Cormorant does not breed on the 

 Berwickshire coast,- it is found in numbers off the shore in 

 the autumn, winter, and spring months. It appears to have 

 certain favourite resorts, such as the Scart Eock,^ near Siccar 

 Point, where it may be often seen resting and preening its 

 feathers, a habit which is thus referred to by old Gawin 

 Douglas : — 



1 It is also called by the Firth of Forth iishermeii " Letter o' Marque," from the 

 white patch on its thigh. — Sporting Days, hy J. Colquhoun, p. 16. 



- It, however, breeds at the Fariie Islands, which are within a lew miles of 

 Berwickshire. — Birds of NorthuviberUtml and Durham, by J. Hancock, ji. 13L 



^ Mr. Hardy says that there is another Scart Rock near the Green Stane, famous 

 amongst the tishermen for the great takes of herring near it in the olden time. Tlie 

 Greeu Staue is situate about a mile west from Dowlaw. 



