igo By Leafy Ways. 



the dark figure of the cormorant. It is most abundant 

 on a rock-bound coast, but there are few parts of our 

 seaboard where it is altogether a stranger. 



Perhaps its most characteristic position is some 

 isolated fragment of rock at a little distance from the 

 land. Well out of range, even at low water, its dark 

 sides picked out with tufts of samphire, and with stains 

 of lichen relieving the rich reds and browns of the sea- 

 worn stone, rises the stern outline of 'The Shag 

 Rock.' 



Side by side along the narrow ledges stand the 

 sombre figures of these toilers of the sea ; some still 

 in the brow r n livery of their younger days, others in 

 the velvety black that marks the attainment of their 

 third season. Now one leaves the ranks, and stretch- 

 ing out its long neck like a duck flies heavily along 

 the water to another station. 



A floating buoy or an old mooring-post by the 

 shore makes a favourite resting-place ; and it is not 

 uncommon to find some particular point held year 

 after year by the same bird not always without fight- 

 ing for it. 



On the broken mast of some ill-fated vessel, covered 

 with clustering barnacles, and with a few frayed ropes 

 still trailing idly in the water one of those sad 

 suggestions 



' Of ships dismasted, that were hailed, 

 And sent no answer back again,' 



a solitary cormorant will rest for hours, upright as a 



