31 



covered with white down, replaced in a few weeks with dark feathers 

 tipped with white. There are four distinct changes of plumage, the 

 mature plumage notjbeing assumed until the fifth year. 



Case 191. 



8HAG OR GREEN CORMORANT {Phalacrocorax graculus). 



This species is also known as the Crested Cormorant, from the 

 curved tuft-like crest, wdiich is assumed in the early spring and shed 

 in May. Though essentially marine and common along all the rugged 

 coasts of the British Islands, it is not so common locally owang to the 

 lack of nesting sites. It is an expert diver and feeds principally on sea 

 fishes. The nest, generally placed on a ledge of rock, is made of seaweed 

 and other badly-smelling materials plastered together. From three to 

 five eggs, with a pale blue undershell thickly encrusted with 

 chalky white (see British Bird Egg Cabinet, drawer 10), are laid early" 

 in May. The manner in which the young are fed is remarkable. The 

 parent bird, with its gullet filled with fish, bends over the young, 

 opening its bill to the fullest extent, upon which the young bird thrusts 

 its head and neck down the old bird's throat and extracts the partially- 

 digested food. 



Case 192. 



GREY LAG-GOOSE {Anser cinereus). 



The only species of wild goose nesting in the British Islands. 

 Locally, it is seen in flocks during the spring and autumn migration 

 resting on the sand-banks off the mouths of the Mersey and Dee. 

 In Morecambe Bay and the Ribble Estuary, where other waders have 

 ceased to find suitable rendezvous in the reclaimed land, geese of 

 several species annually muster to the number of many thousands 

 (Mitchell, " Birds of Lancashire"). A pair of this species nested on 

 the Formby Sands in 1904, but their eggs being taken the birds left. 

 The nest of reeds, dry heather, etc., is generally placed among coarse 

 grass, rushes or heather. Four to seven yellowish white eggs (see 

 British Bird Egg Cabinet, drawer 12) are laid, surrounded by down, 

 from the breast of the female. The males take no part in the incubation. 



Case 19 3. 



EIDER DUCK (Somateria mollissima). 



This species is only known as a winter visitor on the southern and 

 western coasts of England and Wales, but it breeds in suitable localities 



