COKMOKANT. 
7 
reflections, and each feather is narrowly edged with deep 
velvet black. 
The wings reach, when extended, from four feet four to 
four feet six inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, bronze 
brown, with a tinge of green; primaries, dull black; secondaries, 
blackish bronze brown, tinged with purple and green; ter- 
tiaries, also blackish bronze brown, tinged with purple and 
green. The tail, which is rounded at the end, is black, the 
feathers, fourteen in number, are remarkably strong and 
stiff, and when on the land the bird rests on them. The 
legs, which are thick and strong, are as the toes, black; 
webs, black. 
The female is like the male in his winter plumage, and 
both assume summer plumage; length, about two feet nine 
inches; Yarrell says that her crest is longer than that of 
the male, and brighter in colour, but smaller in size. 
The young are at first of a bluish black colour, and in a 
few days become covered with black down. In their first 
plumage, which is not fully attained in less than five or six 
weeks, they have the upper bill dark brown, the lower one 
yellowish brown; iris, brown. Forehead and crown, dark 
dusky brown, slightly glossed with purple green, the lower 
part of the sides of the head white; neck and nape, also dark 
brown, the pouch under the chin, and throat, dull yellowish 
white. Breast, dull yellowish brown above, mottled with 
greyish white, below dull white, varied with a little brown, 
the sides darker dusky brown; greater and lesser wing coverts, 
greyish black, the edges of the feathers blackish brown. Under 
tail coverts, dusky; legs and toes, nearly black; webs, nearly 
black. . 
Mr. Yarrell gives the following account of observations 
made on an old Cormorant, kept in the Garden of the Royal 
Zoological Society, Regent’s Park, London, with reference to 
the changes in its plumage, incident to the approach of 
summer:—‘Some white feathers on the side of the head and 
neck began to appear on the 4th. of January, 1832, and 
arrived at their greatest perfection by the 26th. of February. 
They remained in this state until the 2nd. of April, when 
they began gradually to disappear, and by the I2th. of May 
were wholly lost, having been fifty-three days arriving at 
perfection; 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 
