CHAPTER XXIV 



CORMORANTS AND GANNET 



THE Common Cormorant is called Coal Goose, 

 Great Scart, Scarve, White-headed Cormorant ; this 

 latter name applies to the full breeding state, when 

 the fine white lines on the head and neck show for 

 a brief time very conspicuously. Crested Cormorant, 

 Great Cormorant, and White-spot Cormorant are 

 the names it is known by on the coast-line. 



This fisher is, to a certain extent, local as to choice 

 of habitat ; fish in large quantities it must have, for 

 it is a voracious feeder, yet in proportion to its size 

 not more so than other fish-eating birds. Of the 

 Cormorant it may well be said that good digestion 

 waits on appetite. 



The young birds wander about considerably at 

 times. As a rule, all the birds of this species that 

 we have seen procured inland, from rivers, lakes, 

 meres, and from trout streams, have been more or 

 less in immature plumage. Adults have, at various 

 times and places, been found perching in or on most 

 extraordinary perches for a sea-fowl. Church towers 



and their weather-vanes are frequently ornamented 



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