CORMORANT 357 



CORMORANT 

 [E. HARTERT] 



The common or black-cormorant is a resident species in the 

 British Isles, and may be called abundantly distributed on their 

 coasts and some of the larger inland waters. There being com- 

 paratively few rivers, hardly any of which can be called large, and 

 the shores of many of the inland lakes being too thickly inhabited, 

 we find the cormorant with us chiefly around the coasts, for it is a 

 shy and wary bird, which is, as a rule, not fond of the neighbourhood 

 of men. On the continent of Europe and elsewhere, however, these 

 birds are chiefly frequenters of inland waters, such as lakes and large 

 rivers. 



The food consists exclusively of fish, small as well as the largest 

 which can be swallowed. All sorts of fish are eaten, and no choice is 

 made, except that a fondness for eels is apparent, and mentioned by 

 most writers. 1 



The cormorant dives for its prey. When swimming it makes 

 a short jump, with closed wings, as if surmounting some obstacle, the 

 tail being used like a lever in springing up, and goes down under 

 water, often almost perpendicularly (Scotsman, 3rd Feb. 1912). It then 

 swims along under water rapidly, using its feet alone, and never the 

 wings, though it lifts them a little when turning round, or when 

 nearing the end of a tank in captivity, so as to break the impetus of 

 its movement. Fish are taken from crevices or swimming. Writers 

 who said that cormorants usually used their wings in swimming 

 under water must undoubtedly have been mistaken, unless they had 



1 Radde saw a cormorant in captivity (in the Zoological Gardens at Vienna) catching and 

 swallowing swallows flying across the ground ; and in the Faeroes the natives accuse cormorants 

 of attacking and eating live lambs. The former is doubtless a perversity due to captivity, 

 and the latter requires confirmation. C. S. John (Natural History and Sport in Moray, p. 171) 

 states that the species has been known to swallow and bring to land a moorhen. 



VOL. IV. 2Z 



