154 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



In India the commonest cormorant is a 

 small kind, not so big as a rook, and it is quite 

 a tree-bird, making big colonies in tree-tops 

 like rookeries. There are a great many of 

 these dwarf cormorants in India ; indeed, 

 they are the commonest diving birds there, 

 and along with them one often finds their 

 relative, one of the queerest of diving birds, 

 the darter or snake-bird. There are only a 

 few kinds of darters, only found in hot climates, 

 and they look like exaggerated cormorants. 

 That is to say, a cormorant has a long tail 

 for a water-bird, and a darter's is longer; a 

 cormorant has a long neck, and a darter's is 

 very long indeed ; a cormorant swims low in 

 the water, and a darter sinks so deep in it that 

 you only see his long snaky neck sticking out, 

 and can understand at once how he got his 

 second name. 



These queer birds are often on view at the 

 Zoo, and interest people very much when they 

 are let out to fish in the diving birds' tank. 

 They harpoon the fish with their bill, which is 

 pointed, not hooked at the tip like a cormor- 

 ant's, and then come up to the top, jerk off 

 the fish, and catch and swallow it. As a 



