A LABRADOR SPRING 



green. The inside of the mouth is one of their 

 greatest charms, and, according to Selous, is 

 displayed during courtship; it is coloured a 

 vivid, theatrical blue, which contrasts in a 

 striking manner with the bare, orange throat. 

 How irresistible a cormorant beau must be 

 when he casts his jewelled eyes at his lady love, 

 and opens on her the blue grotto of his mouth ! 

 To complete his charms, he is provided with 

 two little tufts of feathers, one either side of his 

 head, from which he gets his specific name. 



From afar we scented their domiciles, for 

 an all pervading " ancient and a fish-like " smell 

 rose upon the air. We counted 204 nests, 

 basket-like structures six inches to a foot high 

 and a foot and a half across, made of sticks and 

 seaweed cunningly woven together and lined 

 with grasses. Some were decorated, I use 

 the word advisedly, with large gulls' feath- 

 ers, and many with branches of evergreen, 

 balsam, fir, spruce, juniper and laurel. Nearly 

 all contained eggs, chalky white and dirty, 

 from one to five in number. One needed a 

 strong stomach and a sure foot to walk about 

 these rocks slippery with " la farine des cormo- 

 rants," which painted rocks and nests alike a 



112 



