THE CORMORANTS 2041 



feathers remarkable for their extreme stiffness. Cormorants, although far more 

 numerous in the warmer regions of the globe than in northern climates, have an 

 almost cosmopolitan distribution, inhabiting countries as remote from one another 

 as Britain and New Zealand. Whereas, however, some seldom leave the neighbor- 

 hood of the sea, where they take up their stations on rocky islands, others fre- 

 quent reedy swamps and marshes, or the banks of rivers and lakes, and rarely, if 

 ever, visit the sea. While the more northern species are migratory, this is not the 

 case with their more southern cousins. Fossil cormorants date in Europe from the 

 lower portion of the Miocene period. All cormorants are characterized by the dark 

 blackish, bluish, or greenish hue of the plumage of the upper parts, which generally 

 has a more or less marked metallic tinge, and the head may be ornamented with 

 one or two crests of feathers. The best-known, and at the same time the typical 

 representative of the genus, is the common great or black cormorant (Phalacrocorax 

 carbo}, which ranges over the whole of Europe, a large part of Eastern North 

 America, Northern Africa and Egypt, and the greater portion of Asia, and is rep- 

 resented by a closely-allied form in Australia and New Zealand. The species is 

 characterized by the presence of fourteen tail feathers, and attains a length of about 

 thirty-six inches. In the adult bird the plumage of the head and part 'of the neck 

 during the spring and summer is black, with a number of hair-like white feathers 

 intermingled, while the feathers of the back of the head are elongated into a crest. 

 The back and wing coverts are dark brown with black margins to the feathers; the 

 quills and tail are black, and the lower portion of the neck and under parts, save a 

 white patch on the thigh, are bluish black. Of the naked portions, the base of the 

 upper mandible, together with the dilatable membrane of the lower jaw, are yellow, 

 the greater part of the beak is horny, and ,the legs and toes are black. In the 

 northern part of its range the common species is accompanied by the smaller green, 

 or crested cormorant or shag (P. graculus}, as it is indifferently called, which also 

 ranges still farther to the north. This British species, in addition to its smaller 

 size, may be distinguished by the presence of only twelve feathers in the tail, and 

 the general green hue of the plumage, which lacks the white patch on the thigh. 

 Like the larger species, both sexes have a crest in the breeding season; but this is 

 wanting during the winter, and in young birds at all times. This cormorant is es- 

 sentially a marine species. It is replaced in the Mediterranean by an allied form, P. 

 desmaresti or pygmceus, which has brighter colored plumage, and is generally said 

 to lack the crest. This form extends eastward to Java, and is likewise an inhabit- 

 ant of salt or brackish water. The South -African P. capensis is also nearly related. 

 Cormorants are by far the most expert divers of the order to which they belong, and 

 both swim and dive with a speed and power which cannot fail to arouse the admira- 

 tion of all beholders. On land their movements are awkward and ungainly, but their 

 flight, although heavy, is strong and comparatively swift. Feeding almost exclu- 

 sively on fish, these birds are the very type of greediness, and, after having eaten 

 till they can swallow no more, will not unfrequently still try to catch any prey that 

 may come within their reach. When fishing, cormorants often swim with their 

 heads below water, and they also capture a large number of fish by pouncing down 

 upon them from a perch near the bank as they appear at the surface of the water. 



