2042 



THE CORMORANT GROUP 



In general, cormorants are social birds, and frequently associate in vast flocks as 

 is the case with the South-African species which is found in such numbers on the 

 rocks near Cape Town as at times to darken the air when on the wing. Such com- 

 panies continue together during the breeding season, and may make their nests 

 either in the neighborhood of swamps, or on ledges of rock. In Burma Mr. Gates 

 describes vast flocks of the common species breeding on low trees at a height of 

 from fifteen to twenty feet above the water on the margin of a swamp, and Mr. 

 Doig records another similar breeding place in India. In the latter instance ' ' the 

 nests were large platforms of sticks, about two feet in diameter one way and two 

 and one-half the other; that is, they were more oval than circular. The eggs were 



laid on a thin bedding of 

 rush and grass, and the 

 greatest number in one 

 nest was seven. Some 

 had only three, others 

 four, five, and six; the 

 latter seeming to be the 

 normal number, al- 

 though some nests had 

 only four young ones." 

 That this breeding place 

 was a very ancient one, 

 was evident by the cir- 

 cumstance of the nests 

 being built on the top of 

 those of previous years. 

 The eggs have a very 

 pale -blue shell, much 

 incrusted with chalky 

 matter, and become 

 very dirty during the 

 process of incubation. 

 In Kerguelen' s Land 

 Moseley states that the 

 warty cormorant (P. ver- 



rucosus) breeds in companies on- the ledges of the cliffs sloping down to the sea. 

 They make a neat, compact, round nest, raised about a foot from the ground, and 

 composed of mud, with a lining of grass. The number of eggs in this place was 

 only two to three in a nest. He also says that the young birds with their coat of 

 black down were exceedingly ugly; and that "when there are three in the nest nearly 

 full fledged they form an absurd sight, since the nest is then not big enough to 

 hold more than one properly, so the greater part of the bodies of the three young 

 projects out; and then to crown the absurdity, the mother comes and sits on the top 

 of these three young as big as herself." The young feed themselves by poking 

 their heads far down into their parents' throats, and extracting the half-digested 



CORMORANTS FEEDING THEIR YOUNG. 

 (From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1882.) 



