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LAKES AXD STKEAMS 



Cormorant. 



The cormorants and other members of the group Steganopodes 

 may be at once distinguished from other birds by having all four 

 toes webbed together. They are enabled to perch on trees and cliffs by their 

 hind-toe being placed, as a rule, on the same level as the rest, this digit being long 

 and turned inwardly: but running and walking do not come easy to them, as their 

 legs are mostly very short. They live almost exclusively on fish, which they catch by 

 diving, or in the air when jumping out of the water, and they eat these in enormous 



CORMORANT? NESTING 



quantities. The cormorant (Phalacrocornx carbo) is a bird of the seashore as well 

 as of inland waters, which in the north dwells on bare and rocky shores, but 

 in the south prefers tree-lined beaches by quietly flowing rivers, large lakes, and 

 intermingled marshes and lagoons. Sometimes, indeed, it becomes almost a forest- 

 bird. Nesting on cliffs and high rocks, in bushes and among reeds, and on tries, 

 generally in large colonies, it visits the same places every year and can only 

 be driven away by force. On occasion it takes possession of other birds' nests, 

 especially those of herons and crows, and uses these as the foundation of its own, 



