COMMON CORMORANT. 239 



the Cormorant is not easily approached, but gets out 

 of harm's way by flight, not by having recourse to 

 diving, like so many of the true aquatic tribes ; the 

 flight is powerful, and, overland, is performed at a 

 great height. In the firths it has favourite fishing- 

 grounds, to which, at certain periods of the tide, 

 it resorts regularly ; and we have often procured 

 specimens by placing ourselves in concealment as 

 near as possible to the line of flight, which, in seve- 

 ral localities, had to pass over some narrow isthmus, 

 or sufficiently near some jutting-out point of land, 

 to be within shot. This Cormorant is easily do- 

 mesticated, and will come readily to be fed ; and at 

 one time, we believe, there was such a royal office 

 as " Master of the Cormorants." We have not seen 

 any recent account of the fishing with these birds, 

 nor has it been practised for a long period in this 

 country. We do not know with certainty the ex- 

 tra European range of this species ; but it may pro- 

 bably extend to North- eastern Asia; Mr. Yarrell 

 states, the Caspian Sea and India. Audubon describes 

 the Cormorant as breeding along the Labrador coast, 

 in parties of fifty or more pairs. 



In the full breeding plumage, the chin, and around 

 the rictus, is white ; the head and neck, the middle 

 line of the back, and entire under-parts, glossy 

 bluish black ; and the cheeks and sides of the neck 

 are more or less interspersed with white lengthened 

 hair-like feathers ; the occiput is furnished with a 

 long, hackled, recumbent crest, erectile at will ; 

 the shoulders and wings, except the quills, are 



