PELICANID^E. ^ 559 



Guillemots add much to the general beauty by their 

 voices, as they groan and grunt at each other in a 

 horrible way, like twice their number of pigs. 



Family PELICANIDJE. 



Of the four Pelicanidse now included amongst the 

 British birds, I have only two Somersetshire species 

 to mention, both of them only occasional visitors to 

 our muddy sea. 



COMMON CORMORANT, Phalacrocoraz Carlo. I 

 only know of one Somersetshire specimen of the 

 Cormorant, and that is the one mentioned by Mon- 

 tagu as having been taken alive in the river near 

 Bridgwater, and sent to him by his friend Mr. An- 

 stice : this bird lived some time in confinement 

 quite long enough to show its various changes of 

 plumage, and to prove that the Cormorant and the 

 " Crested Cormorant" of Bewick are the same bird, 

 the only difference being that the latter is the present 

 species in its summer plumage. 



This bird appears to become very tame in confine- 

 ment, as both Montagu's bird and one kept by Dr. 

 Saxby* became almost troublesomely tame, roaming 

 about the house wherever there was an open door, 

 and occasionally making an expedition to inspect the 



* See ' Zoologist ' for 1865, p. 9408. 



