CORMORANT. 
5 
at last down it goes, and always head foremost. Fish are 
its natural food, and those of the size of a herring or 
mackarel it can swallow whole. One has been seen to carry 
an eel it had caught to a rail it had previously been sitting 
on, strike it with three or four hard blows against the rail, 
and then after tossing it up into the air, catch it by the 
head, and swallow it at once. Colonel Montagu says, ‘If 
by accident a large fish sticks in the gullet, it has the 
power of* inflating that part to its utmost, and while in that 
state the head and neck are shaken violently, in order to 
promote its passage.’ He adds, speaking of a tame bird he 
had, ‘to a Gull with a piece of fish it will instantly give 
chase: in this it seemed actuated with a desire to possess 
the fish, for if the Gull had time to swallow it no resent¬ 
ment was offered.’ 
Meyer writes, ‘When this bird is engaged in fishing, it 
frequently swims with its head beneath the surface of the 
water, in order, most probably, to overcome the difficulty, 
caused by the ripple on its surface, of seeing its prey; (or 
rather, in my opinion, to try to swallow some fish it has 
already caught, and stretching out its neck to aid it in doing 
so,) and from time to time it dives under to catch the fish, 
which it can pursue for more than sixty or seventy yards 
under water, before it is obliged to come up for air. 
Several Cormorants may be seen at a time sitting side by 
side on the water’s edge, looking out for fish, and if they 
are frightened, they rise up to a sufficient height in the air 
to be out of gunshot. When this bird is met with at a 
distance from the sea it frequently seems to lose its presence 
of mind, and is easily approached and captured.’ When 
attacked at close quarters on its natural element, it defends 
itself to the last with its strong bill, and is a formidable 
antagonist. Meyer also asserts that the birds frequently 
assist each other in killing the more unmanageable fishes, 
but if so it must rather, I should think, be from a selfish 
motive, and with a private end in view that they are thus 
officious in being ‘in at the death:’ I do not incline to think 
that there is much disinterested generosity in the nature of 
the Cormorant. 
The note of this species is harsh; a ‘kree,’ ‘kraw,’ or ‘kreil.* 
The young ones have a querulous cry. 
The Cormorant naturally prefers an elevated siti ation for 
its nest, though in delault of such it is obliged to put up 
