486 PELECANirm 



rounded in form, and in some degree resembling bristles. 

 Some white feathers began to appear on the thighs of the 

 same bird on the 24th of January, and the patch was 

 completed in five weeks. These white feathers began to 

 disappear about the 16th of June, and by the 20th of July 

 were almost entirely gone. Both sexes assume summer 

 plumage. The female has the longest crest, and is the 

 brightest in colour, but is the smallest in size. A young 

 Cormorant brought to the Gardens in the autumn of 1830, 

 did not go through any change during the summers of 1831 

 or 1832. 



Cormorants, when at their breeding-stations, seem to 

 prefer the higher parts of the rocks or cliffs,* and many 

 birds congregate harmoniously together. They make a 

 large nest, composed of sticks, with a mass of sea-weed 

 and long coarse grass ; they lay four, five, and sometimes 

 six eggs, which are small compared to the size of the bird. 

 The eggs are oblong, similar in shape at both ends, rough 

 in texture externally, of a chalky white colour, varied 

 with pale blue ; the length two inches nine lines, by one 

 inch and seven lines in breadth. Mr. Selby says, " The 

 young when first excluded are blind, and covered with a 

 bluish-black skin ; in the course of a few days they ac- 

 quire a thick covering of black down, and are sufficiently 

 fledged to take to the water, though still unable to fly, in 

 the space of three weeks or a month." The old birds fly 

 well, generally low over the surface of the water ; they 

 swim rapidly, and dive in perfection ; their food is fish, 

 which they appear to catch with great ease and hold with 



* Upon an island in the demesne of the Earl of Shannon, Castle 

 Martyr, County Cork, more than 80 Cormorants' nests were counted in 

 one season, on Scotch fir-trees not under 60 feet in height, in which they 

 hatched their young. The Eev. Richard Lubbock says that Cormorants 

 have in some seasons nested in the trees around the decoy at Fritton in 

 Norfolk ; M. Malherbe states, also, that in Sicily the Cormorants make 

 their nests on trees in the marshes. 



