482 PELECANID^E. 



ones, much longer than the black feathers of the same part, 

 rounded in form, and in some degree resembling bristles. 

 Some white feathers began to appear on the thighs of the 

 same bird on the 25th of January, and the patch was 

 completed in five weeks. These white feathers began to 

 disappear about the 16th of June, and by the 20th of July 

 were almost entirely gone. Both sexes assume summer plum- 

 age. The female has the longest crest, and is the brightest 

 in colour, but is the smallest in size. A young Cormorant 

 brought to the Garden in the autumn of 1830, did not go 

 through any change during the summers of 1831 or 1832. 



Cormorants, when at their breeding-stations, seem to 

 prefer the higher parts of the rocks or cliffs,* and many 

 birds congregate harmoniously together. They make a 

 large nest, composed of sticks, with a mass of sea-weed 

 and long coarse grass ; they lay four, five, and sometimes 

 six eggs, which are small compared to the size of the bird. 

 The eggs are oblong, similar in shape at both ends, rough 

 in texture externally, of a chalky white colour, varied 

 with pale blue ; the length two inches nine lines, by one 

 inch and seven lines in breadth. Mr. Selby says, <c The 

 young when first excluded are blind, and covered with a 

 bluish-black skin ; in the course of a few days they ac- 

 quire a thick covering of black down, and are sufficiently 

 fledged to take to the water, though still unable to fly, in 

 the space of three weeks or a month." The old birds fly 

 well, generally low over the surface of the water ; they 

 swim rapidly, and dive in perfection ; their food is fish, 

 which they appear to catch with great ease and hold with 

 certainty, by the sharp, hooked, horny point of the upper 

 mandible ; their dilatable throat enabling them to swallow 



* The Rev. Richard Lubbock says that Cormorants have in some seasons 

 nested in the trees around the decoy at Fritton in Norfolk ; M. Malherbe states, 

 also, that in Sicily the Cormorants make their nests on trees in the marshes. 



