Tre BRITISH ‘SEA BIRDS: 
from the coast to fresh waters, where an abundant 
supply of fish offers a solace to its great voracity. 
The Cormorants and the Gannet are members of 
the family PHALAcRocoraActIDé, although generically 
distinct from each other. Their principal external 
characteristics are the webbed feet, each toe, 
encluding the hind one, being connected by a 
membrane, the long and powerful wings, and the 
strong beak. The young birds in this family are 
hatched naked and blind, but soon become clothed 
with down. The first plumage differs considerably 
from that of maturity, and the latter is not rarely 
attained for several years. These birds have but 
one actual moult in the year, in autumn, but just 
previous to the pairing season in winter, crests in 
some species, and ornamental filaments and tufts in 
others, are assumed, but are lost by abrasion during 
the ensuing breeding period. Three members of 
this family are British, and breed abundantly 
within our limits. Cormorants and Gannets are 
widely dispersed species; the former are almost 
cosmopolitan, only being absent from the polar 
regions and Polynesia; the latter are most abundant 
in the tropics and the southern seas. A detailed 
account of the three British species will now be 
given. 
CORMORANT. 
From the autumn onwards to the following 
spring, there are few parts of the coast, indeed, 
where this bird, the Phalacrocorax carbo of orni- 
