CORMORANT. NATAT. PHALAi ROCOKAX. 447 



an accidental variety. It is now, however, well ascertained, 

 that, on the approach of spring, both sexes invariably under- 

 go 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 observation, and by 

 the dissection of many specimens from a colony that annual- 

 ly breed at the Fern Islands on the Northumbrian coast. 

 This bird is perhaps generally looked on with dislike, from 

 an association of ideas produced by the extravagant descrip- 

 tions of different authors, and from the prominent part it is 

 made to perform in the sublime poem of " Paradise Lost. 1 * 1 

 As naturalists, however, and believers in the unerring wis- 

 dom 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 destin- 

 ed 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 na- 

 ture directly the reverse ; for he states, that he found it ex- 

 tremely docile, of a grateful disposition, and without the 

 smallest tincture of a savage or vindictive spirit. This cha- 

 racter I can confirm, from having kept it in a domesticated 

 state ; and the very fact, indeed, of these birds having been 

 trained to fish, as many of the Falconidce 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 



* See Supplement to the Ornith. Diet., article Cormorant., where an in- 

 teresting account of its manners is given. 



