874 PELECANID.E. 



Face and throat naked. Nostrils basal, linear, hid. Legs strong, short, ab- 

 dominal ; three toes in front, one behind, the hind toe articulated on the inner 

 surface of the tarsus ; 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 stiflfand rigid. 



The Great Cormorant, or Black Cormorant as it is 

 sometimes called, to distinguish it from the green-coloured 

 species next to be described, is found in considerable num- 

 bers on most of the rocky parts all round the coast. So 

 common indeed is it as to make an enumeration of the lo- 

 calities it frequents unnecessary ; yet the bird has given rise 

 to some mistakes, and the new appearance assumed by the 

 adult Cormorant when it has acquired in spring the crest and 

 further change peculiar to the breeding-season, has induced 

 some authors to consider that we had in this country, besides 

 the green species already referred to, a second Cormorant. 



Our illustration represents two birds killed at the Isle of 

 Wight. The bird in front is in the plumage of the breeding- 

 season ; the other is a younger bird, not yet sufficiently ma- 

 tured to assume the breeding-dress. Some observations made 

 upon living Cormorants in the Gardens of the Zoological So- 

 ciety will afford further explanation. Some white feathers on 

 the side of the head and neck began to appear on an old bird 

 on the 4th of January, 1882, and arrived at their greatest 

 perfection by the 26th of February. They remained in this 

 state till the 2nd of April, when they began gradually to dis- 

 appear, and by the 12th of May were wholly lost, having 

 been fifty-three days arriving at perfection ; thirty-six days 

 stationary, and forty days disappearing ; making together a 

 period of eighteen weeks three days. These white feathers 

 are new ones, much longer than the black feathers of the 

 same part, rounded in form, and in some degree resembling 

 bristles. Some white feathers began to appear on the thighs 

 of the same bird on the 25tli of January, and the patch was 

 completed in five weeks. These white feathers began to dis- 



