SEA-FOWL SHOOTING. 129 



ame coloiu-. The coverts and primaries are dusky. The tail con- 

 ists of fourteen stiff husky feathers, which look as if they wevo 

 iiscoloured by being dipped in mud or dirty kemiel-water. The 

 egs are thick, strong, black, and coarse, about two inches and a 

 alf long, and the outer toe is more than four inches in length. 



The cormorant is_ a native of almost every climate. They abound 

 a great numbers in Greenland and Nova Zembla, and parts ad 

 acent ; and the natives have a curious method of taking them, by 

 Qcans of lui'es or decoys. They make use of the jugular pouch of 

 he bird for a bladder to float their fishing-darts, after they are 

 hrown. Their skins, which are tough and leathery, are used for 

 ,'arments, and their flesh for food. But it is said that the eggs of 

 he bird are too foetid even to be eaten by Greenlanders. 



These birds usually assemble in flocks on the summits and inac- 

 ;essible parts of the rocks which overhang or are surrounded by 

 he sea, upon which the female makes her nest of the withered 

 ea-tang, weeds, sticks, and grasses, which are cast on shore by the 

 raves ; she lays four or five greenish- Avhite eggs, of the size of 

 hose of a goose, but of a longer shape. There are sporting writers 

 .nd naturalists who assert that, in some parts of the world, these 

 irds build their nests on trees, like the rook and the heron ; others, 

 gain, stricken with the singular conformation of the feet and the 

 errated claAvs, have ascribed properties to them which they do not 

 lossess, and maintain that they hold their prey in one foot, while 

 vith the other they push forward to the shore, or carry it thither 

 a the same manner on the wing. But this is pure fancy, unsup- 

 )orted by any evidence of fact. The truth is, the feet of these birds 

 ire not fitted for any such purposes. They are, like those of all the 

 Xpert diving tribes, placed far behind, and while, by the position 

 f these, and the powerful stroke from their broad webs, the birds 

 ire able to pursue and overtake their slippery prey, the hooked 

 harp-edged beak is the only fit instrument both to catch and se-_ 

 !ure it, and there is no need to use the awkward expedient of 

 emovmg it afterwards to the foot. 



At sea, or in the inland lakes, these birds make dreadful havoc. 

 horn the greatest height they drop down upon the object of pur- 

 .uit, dive after it mth the rapidity of a dart, and, with an almost 

 merring certainty, seize the victim ; then emerging with the fisli 

 icross the bill, with a kind of twirl, throw it up into the air, and, 

 lexterously catching it head foremost, swaUow it whole. 



While at rest on the shore, commonly on the ledge of a pro- 

 ecting rock, these birds sit, more or less, in an erect posture, 

 md are propped up by the stiff feathers of the tail ; and in places 

 vhere they nave not experienced the direful effects of fire-arms, 

 -hey have been known, however wary at other times, to sit and re- 

 ;eive repeated shots, without offering to move out of the danger. 

 it other times and places, while they sit in a dosmg and stupified 

 jtate, from the effects of one of their customary surfeits, they may 

 asily be taken, by throwing nets over them, or by putting auoaso 



