PELECANIN^E. PHALACROCORAX. 223 



much inclined position, walk very little, fly with a moderately 

 quick, sedate, and even flight, at a small height, are generally 

 shy, and difficult to be shot, and form very large rude nests, 

 of sticks and sea- weeds. The eggs, generally three, are oblong, 

 two inches and eight-twelfths in length, and inch and three- 

 fourths in breadth, with a thick roughish, bluish- white shell, 

 thickly crusted with white calcareous matter. The young 

 at first have the skin bare and dusky or dull livid, in a few 

 days are covered with brownish-black down, and in about 

 eight weeks are able to fly. For about six months, they have 

 the nostrils open, and the middle claws entire. The flesh is 

 dark-coloured and rank, and the eggs unfit for being eaten, 

 as in all the Cormorants. 



White-spot Cormorant. White-headed Cormorant. Crest- 

 ed Cormorant. Great Scart or Scarve. Coal Goose. 



Pelecanus Carbo, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 216. Pelecanus Car- 

 bo, Lath. Jnd. Ornith. ii. 886. Carbo Cormoranus, Temm. 

 Man. d'Ornith. ii. 894. Phalacrocorax Carbo, Great Cormo- 

 rant, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, v. 



287. PHALACROCORAX GRACULUS. GREEN CORMORANT. 



Length about two feet and a quarter; tail of twelve fea- 

 thers ; imbricated feathers on the back ovate, rather acute, 

 with velvety margins. Adult in winter crestless ; the plum- 

 age glossy, blackish-green ; feathers of the wings and fore- 

 part of the back of a lighter green, with deep black margins ; 

 some scattered, extremely minute, piliform, pencil-tipped 

 white plumelets on the neck. In spring, an additional tuft 

 of oblong, erect, recurved feathers, about two inches in length, 

 on the top of the head. Young with the head and hind-neck 

 greenish-brown, the rest of the upper parts darker, the imbri- 

 cated feathers of the back and wings with glossy margins ; 

 the lower parts brownish-grey; the throat and part of the 

 breast inclining to white. 



Male, 29, 42, 10^, 5|, 2 T 3 ? , 4, 4J. Female, 26, 38. 



The Crested Cormorant is generally distributed along our 

 coasts, and very abundant in many parts of Scotland, resid- 

 ing chiefly in caverns and fissures of the rocks, where it also 

 breeds. The nest is bulky ; the eggs two or three, subellip- 

 tical, very narrow, bluish- white, two inches and a quarter 

 long, and inch and a half in breadth. It sits deep on the 

 water, when alarmed sinks so as to expose only the head and 

 neck, swims and dives with extreme dexterity, feeds on small 

 fishes, can scarcely walk, stands in a much inclined posture, 

 and emits a croaking cry. Its flesh is dark-coloured and rank, 



