PLATE I 

 CORMORANT. Phalacrocorax carbo 



June IO//T, 1893. This Plate is from a general view of the colony on Cormorant 

 Island off the Fames. The birds have been established here for many years, 

 and have gradually increased in number, though the nests have been washed 

 away by heavy seas during the breeding season on two occasions. 



When I visited the colony in 1892 there were forty-five nests containing 

 eggs, and in 1893 I counted fifty-three nests. The birds are much shyer here 

 than I have ever seen them at other stations on the west coast of Scotland, 

 possibly because they are more frequently disturbed. They left their nests 

 when we were some eighty yards off, and retired to the sea some distance 

 away. All the time we were at the nests, small parties of them frequently 

 flew round to watch our movements. 



We noticed that the white filaments on the head and neck and the white 

 plumes on the thigh were still visible, though many of the birds had apparently 

 cast the white filaments on the head and neck, and had only the white plumes 

 on the thigh remaining. 



The period of incubation lasts from twenty-six to twenty-eight days, both 

 birds taking their share of that duty, during the performance of which the sitting 

 bird is fed by its mate, often refusing the food brought, which is then allowed to 

 lie about the nest till it decomposes and makes the vicinity of the nest anything 

 but sweet. I noticed with the aid of a glass that the male performed the task 

 of collecting food for the young birds, who pecked the half-digested fish from 

 his mouth, or from the edge of the nest where he sometimes disgorged it. After 

 the young birds have been hatched for some time the entire sides of the nest are 

 coated with a decomposing mass of fish, and covered with thousands of flies. 



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