[Case 43. | 
Case 43. ] 
[Case 43.] 
70 BIRD GALLERY, 
with lightning speed and unerring aim, and the prey is transfixed in a 
moment. The bird then rises to the surface, and jerking the fish into 
the air dexterously catches and swallows it. The flight is laboured, but 
in the water they are perfectly at ease, swimming with only the head 
and neck exposed, or, if danger threatens, with only the beak above the 
surface. When diving in pursuit of fish, the wings are but little used, 
the feet acting as powerful paddles. The nest, which is made of sticks 
and lined with roots or moss, is placed in a tree or bush, generally 
in company with many others. The eggs are from two to five in 
number, chalky greenish-blue, and much like those of the Cormorants 
but smaller. 
About forty species of Cormorants (Phalacrocorax) (800-806) are 
known and distributed over almost the entire face of the globe. he bill 
is more raptorial than in the Darters and furnished with a hook at the 
end. Two species occur commonly on our coasts, the Common 
Cormorant (P. carbo) (800) and the Green Cormorant or Shag 
(P. graculus) (801). The ornamental white plumes on the head and 
neck of the former and the crest on the latter are only assumed during 
the breeding-season and afterwards shed. Examples of both these 
species in adult and immature, brown or brown-and-white, plumage are 
exhibited. Almost all the species are black, or black and white, more or 
less glossed with purplish, blue, or green. A number of very handsome 
white-breasted species inhabit the colder parts of the southern hemi- 
sphere, ranging from South America to New Zealand. An example of 
these will be found in the White-bellied Cormorant (P. albiventer) 
(802) ; and two handsome little species from New Zealand and Australia, 
the Frilled and White-throated Cormorants (P. melanoleucus (805) and 
P. brevirostris (806)), are also exhibited. 
Family Il. Sutin. Gannets. 
The Gannets or Boobies (Sw/a) (807-810) are a widely distributed 
group of oceanic birds represented by about a dozen species. They are 
easily recognised by their long, stout, tapering bill, sharply pointed at 
the tip and serrated on the cutting edges of the mandibles, their long 
pointed wings and wedge-shaped tail. All are birds of very powerful 
flight and capture the fish on which they prey by diving, the headlong 
plunge being made with great velocity from a considerable height. 
One of the most familiar is the Common Gannet or Solan Goose 
(S. bassana) (807), a well-known British species which nests at several 
stations, such as Lundy Island, Grassholm, the Bass Rock, Ailsa Craig, 
St. Kilda, the Little Skellig, &e. The nest, a mass of seaweed and 
grass, is placed on a ledge of rock or, in some cases, on a low tree, and 
