STEGANOPODES. ( 30 ) PELECANID&. 



THE COMMON CORMORANT. 



BLACK CORMORANT, GREAT CORMORANT, WHITE-HEADED 



CORMORANT, WHITE SPOT CORMORANT, GREAT 



SCART OR SCARVE, COAL GOOSE. 



Phalacrocorax carbo. 

 tC&e Black, or MUtd), or >tatr Cormorant, <3p&e ^cart. 1 



Even as the matron at her nightly task, 

 With pensive labour draws the flaxen thread, 

 The wasted taper and the crackling flame 

 Foretell the blast. But chief the plumy race, 

 The tenants of the sky, its changes speak. 

 Retiring from the downs, where all day long 

 They picKd their scanty fare, a blackening train 

 Of clamrous Rooks thick-urge their weary flight, 

 And seek the closing shelter of the grove ; 

 Assiduous, in his bower, the wailing Owl 

 Plies his sad song. The Cormorant on high 

 Wheels from the deep, and screams along the land. 



THOMSON, Winter. 



ALTHOUGH the Common Cormorant does not breed on the 

 Berwickshire coast, 2 it is found in numbers off the shore in 

 the autumn, winter, and spring months. It appears to have 

 certain favourite resorts, such as the Scart Rock, 3 near Siccar 

 Point, where it may be often seen resting and preening its 

 feathers, a habit which is thus referred to by old Gawin 

 Douglas : 



1 It is also called by the Firth of Forth fishermen " Letter o' Marque," from the 

 white patch on its thigh. Sporting Days, by J. Colquhoun, p. 16. 



2 It, however, breeds at the Fame Islands, which are within a few miles of 

 Berwickshire. Birds of Northumberland and Durham, by J. Hancock, p. 131. 



3 Mr. Hardy says that there is another Scart Rock near the Green Stane, famous 

 amongst the fishermen for the great takes of herring near it in the olden time. The 

 Green Staue is situate about a mile west from Dowlaw. 



