COMMON CORMORANT. 485 



PHALACROCORAX. Generic Characters. Bill moderate, or long, straight, 

 compressed, culmen rounded ; upper mandible very much curved at the 

 point, hooked; the base connected with a membrane which extends-4o 

 the throat. Face and throat naked. Nostrils basal, linear, hid. Legs 

 strong, short, abdominal ; three toes in front, one behind, the hind toe 

 articulated on the inner surface of the tarsus ; all four toes united together 

 by membranes ; claw of the middle toe serrated on the inner edge. 

 Wings of moderate length, the third quill-feather the longest. Tail- 

 feathers stiff and rigid. 



THE GREAT CORMORANT, or Black Cormorant as it is 

 sometimes called, to distinguish it from the green-coloured 

 species next to be described, is found in considerable num- 

 bers on most of the rocky parts all round the coast. So 

 common indeed is it as to make an enumeration of the 

 localities it frequents unnecessary ; yet the bird has given 

 rise to some mistakes, and the new appearance assumed by 

 the adult Cormorant when it has acquired in spring the 

 crest and further change peculiar to the breeding-season, 

 has induced some authors to consider that we had in this 

 country, besides the green species already referred to, a 

 second Cormorant. 



Our illustration represents two birds killed at the Isle of 

 Wight. The bird in front is in the plumage of the breed- 

 ing-season; the other is a younger bird, not yet suffi- 

 ciently matured to assume the breeding-dress. Some ob- 

 servations made upon living Cormorants in the Gardens 

 of the Zoological Society will afford further explanation. 

 Some white feathers on the side of the head and neck 

 began to appear on an old bird on the 4th of January, 

 1832, and arrived at their greatest perfection by the 26th 

 of February. They remained in this state till the 2nd of 

 April, when they began gradually to disappear, and by the 

 12th of May were wholly lost, having been fifty -three 

 days arriving at perfection ; thirty-six days stationary, and 

 forty days disappearing ; making together a period of 

 eighteen weeks three days. These white feathers are new 

 ones, much longer than the black feathers of the same part, 



