206 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



face: round this the penguins made their 

 lower settlement, rather in holes in the 

 ground, and most usually eight penguins to 

 one albatross. Nothing is a stronger proof of 

 Mr Buffon's fine observation, that the presence 

 of man not only destroys the society of meaner 

 animals, but their instincts also. These nests 

 are now, I am told, totally destroyed ; the 

 society is broke up; and the albatross and 

 penguin have gone to breed upon more desert 

 shores, in greater security. 1 



CHAP. V. 



THE CORMORANT. 2 



THE Cormorant is above the size of a large 

 Muscovy duck, and may be distinguished 

 from all other birds of this kind, by its four 

 toes being united by membranes together ; 

 and by the middle toe being toothed or notched 

 like a saw, to assist it in holding its fishy 

 prey. The head and neck of this bird are of 

 a sooty blackness; and the body thick and 



1 The Albatross is also called the man-of-war bird. 

 In the West Indies these birds are said to foretell the 

 arrival of ships; which is frequently true, and may arise 

 from a very natural cause. They always fish in fine 

 weather; so that, when the wind is rough at sea, they 

 retire into the harbours, where they are protected by 

 the land ; and the same wind that blows them in, brings 

 likewise whatever vessels may be exposed to its fury, to 

 seek a retreat from it. They devour fish with great 

 gluttony and are often so gorged as to be unable to fly. 

 Their cry resembles the braying of an ass. 



The Chocolate 4U>alross.This bird inhabits the 

 Pacific Ocean, and is three feet long. The bill is 

 whitish ; the body of a deep chestnut brown colour ; 

 belly pale; face and wings beneath whitish. The irides 

 are brown; the legs bluish white, with white claws. 



Yellow-Nosed Albatross. The colour is white ; the 

 bill is black; keel of the upper mandible, and base 

 of the lower one yellow ; the body above is of a black- 

 blue colour ; beneath it is white. It inhabits the Pacific 

 ocean, and is about three feet long. The irides are 

 brown; the nape of the neck and rump, white; the legs 

 are pale yellow; the foro-part and connected mem- 

 brane dusky. 



- Although the cormorant appears to have been always 

 common upon our coasts, and of known extensive dis- 

 tribution throughout the maritime districts of the north 

 of Europe, it is only within the last few years that the 



heavy, more inclined in figure to that of the 

 goose than the gull. The bill is straight, till 

 near the end, where the upper chap bends 

 into a hook. 



changes of plumage to which it is subject, have been 

 perfectly investigated, and that the mistakes of earlier 

 writers have been corrected by the observations of 

 Montagu, Temminck, and other eminent ornithologists. 

 It has been described by several as a distinct species 

 when in its summer or nuptial plumage. Some have 

 considered this state as indicative only of the male bird, 

 whilst others have regarded it as a common or an ac- 

 cidental variety. It is now, however, well ascertained, 

 that, on the approach of spring, both sexes invariably 

 undergo the change that assimilates them to the Crested 

 Cormorant of Bewick and others, and which garb they 

 retain till after reproduction has been effected. This I 

 have had repeated opportunities of verifying from my 

 own observations, and by the dissection of many speci- 

 mens from a colony that annually breed at the Fern 

 islands on the Northumbrian coast. This bird is per- 

 haps generally looked on with dislike, from an associa- 

 tion of ideas produced by the extravagant descriptions 

 of different authors, and from the prominent part it is 

 made to perform in the sublime poem of " Paradise 

 Lost." As naturalists, however, and believers in the 

 unerring wisdom so greatly and wonderfully displayed 

 throughout the animated creation, we are not to judge 

 of its qualities from the exaggerations of fancy, but to 

 consider whether its powers are not fitly and beautifully 

 adapted to the place it is destined to fill in the great 

 chain of the universe. Viewed in this, the only true 

 light, we shall find much to admire, since its instincts 

 and habits are in such perfect accordance with, and so 

 ably support, the economy of its being, So far, indeed, 

 from possessing the bad qualities attributed to it, it 

 seems, from the testimony of Montagu, to be endowed 

 with a nature directly the reverse; for he states, that 

 he found it extremely docile, of a grateful disposition, 

 and without the smallest tincture of a savage or vindic- 

 tive spirit. This character I can confirm, from having 

 kept it in a domesticated state; arid the very fact, in- 

 deed, of these birds having been trained to fish, as many 

 of the Fulconidae are to fowl, is a further proof of its 

 docility and tractable nature. Like other piscivorous 

 birds, its digestion is rapid, and its consumption of food 

 consequently great, but the epithet of glutton, and the 

 accusation of unrelenting cruelty, are no more applicable 

 to it, than to any other bird destined by its Creator to 

 prey on living matter. In Britain, where it is numer- 

 ous and widely dispersed, the Cormorant breeds upon 

 rocky shores and islands, selecting the summits of the 

 rocks for the situation of the nest, and not (like the Green 

 Cormorant) the clefts or ledges. In some countries it 

 breeds upon trees, possessing, as I have before observed, 

 the power of grasping firmly with its feet. Upon the 

 Fern islands, its nest is composed entirely of a mass of 

 sea-weed, frequently heaped up to the height of two 

 feet, in which are deposited from three to five eggs, of 

 a pale bluish-white, with a rough surface, from the un- 

 equal deposition of the calcareous matter. The young, 

 when first hatched, are quite naked and veiy ugly, the 

 skin being of a purplish-black; this in six or seven days 

 becomes clothed with a thick black down, but the fea- 

 thered plumage is not perfected in less than five or six 

 weeks. Instinct, that powerful substitute for reason, is 

 no where more beautifully exemplified than in the young 

 of this bird ; for I have repeatedly found, that, upon 

 being thrown Into the sea, even when scarcely half- 

 fledged, they immediately plunge beneath the surface, 

 and endeavour to escape by diving. This they will do 

 to a great distance, using their imperfect wings, and 

 pursuing their submarine flight in the same manner, 



