304 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



stands much more uprightly than its congeners. Its food 

 consists of small fish^ aquatic and other insects, a considerable 

 quantity of vegetable matter, and, like the rest of the family, 

 it swallows a large quantity of its own feathers. Mr. Jeffery 

 tells me that he had seen, at one house at Chichester, the 

 skins of the breasts of fourteen Little Grebes, cut up the 

 middle, and sewn together for trimmings. In the ' Zoologist ' 

 (p. 1482, s. s.) Mr. J. W. Stephenson states that he had heard 

 from Worthing, that on the 6th of November, 1868, an un- 

 usual number of this species were seen at, and in the 

 neighbourhood of. Lancing. They were said to be "in every 

 ditch,^' and on the following day not one was to be seen. 



STEGANOPODES. 

 PHALACROCOEACID^. 



COMMON CORMORANT. 



Phalacrocorax carlo. 



This entirely marine species, sometimes called the "Isle of 

 Wight Parson,^' from the white marks on the throat some- 

 what resembling the bands of an ecclesiastic^ is by no means 

 common in the eastern part of the county^ and at the 

 present time it breeds only on Seaford Head ; the colony 

 there being but small, our own birds are supplemented by 

 an occasional stranger from the Isle of Wight, the next 

 nearest breeding-place. The Cormorant lives entirely on 

 fish, especially on eels. It is a great diver, using its wings 

 under water, as I have had good opportunities of observing 

 at StafFa, and about the sea-caves on the coast of Mayo. It 



