PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 353 



the precipitous coasts of Great Britain, although there is one colony on an isolated 

 crag in the Disinwy valley, Merionethshire, four or five miles inland. It outnumbers 

 the shag along the east coast from Flamborough northward, and in Wales (with the 

 exception of Pembrokeshire), but on the rest of our coast-line and in the Hebrides, 

 Orkneys, and Shetlands it is less abundant than the shag. In Ireland it is general 

 along the coast except in the north and west, and breeds in several inland localities. 

 Outside the British Isles it is found in the Fseroes, Iceland, and Southern Greenland, 

 while on the Continent it breeds locally along the coasts and in some districts also 

 inland. Northward it ranges to the Stavanger Fjord and the shores of the White 

 Sea, but is rare in the Baltic, and only found on its southern coasts and in South 

 Sweden : large colonies formerly existed in Holland, though now decreased in 

 numbers, and locally it is found in North-west France, Germany, Hungary, the 

 Danube valley (where enormous colonies exist near the mouth), Italy and the 

 adjacent islands, the Balkan Peninsula, the Black Sea, Asia Minor, and Northern 

 Africa. In Asia it ranges across the continent to Kamtschatka and Japan, but the 

 races which inhabit India, Burma, etc., and Australia are probably subspecifically 

 distinct, as also are S. African birds. In North America, however, it is found on 

 the eastern side from Hudson's Bay to Carolina and Georgia, but is absent from 

 the Pacific side. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. Resident, breeding on many parts of the British coasts, and, 

 especially hi Ireland, in some cases in inland localities (see preceding paragraph). Non- 

 breeding birds may be seen in summer on many waters, marine and inland, in the 

 neighbourhood of which the species does not nest. In winter the cormorant is widely 

 distributed in British seas, and is of fairly frequent occurrence on inland waters. 

 There is evidence of a partial southward movement in early winter. The majority 

 " retire southward " from Yorkshire in winter, although the number remaining at 

 that season is apparently on the increase : on the north of Kent, where the species 

 is not found in summer, the number of winter visitant birds appears to be greater 

 than formerly (cf. Nelson, B. of Yorlcs., 1907, pp. 375, 378 ; and Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 

 1909, p. 300). On the North Wales coast the cormorant is resident, and on the 

 Dumfriesshire coast " a very common non-breeding resident " (cf. Forrest, Fauna of 

 N. Wales, 1907, p. 249 ; and Gladstone, B. of Dumfries., 1910, p. 221). Birds marked 

 in the nest on the Saltee Islands (off Co. Wexford) and the Scilly Isles respectively 

 have been recorded from the coast of Finisterre, Western France, in November and 

 December of their second winter (cf. Witherby, British Birds, vol. v. pp. 186, 314). 

 A gregarious species at all seasons. [A. L. T.] 



