COKMOKANT 3 



Voice. The voice of the Cormorant is loud and croaking, 

 and the pitch is so low that the note may be compared to 

 that produced on a bassoon. 



Nest. The Cormorant is gregarious in the breeding- 

 season, and large numbers of birds nest in colonies on the 

 exposed ledges of sea-cliffs, lake-islands (where the nests 

 are in some localities built on the ground), and in a few 

 places on trees and bushes. (Plate IV.) The nest is a large 

 compact structure, composed, for the most part, of stems or 

 sticks, 1 and in maritime situations of masses of seaweed, 2 

 and it is plentifully lined with grasses and fragments of 

 moss ; wreaths of fresh ivy covered with leaves are some- 

 times added. The eggs, three to five in number, have a 

 rough chalky white incrustation, under which is a pale blue 

 shell. In sheltered localities incubation begins early in 

 April, but on exposed sea-cliffs, not until a few weeks later. 

 The young are at first naked and blind, the eyelids remaining 

 closed for about a fortnight. The nestling, from the time 

 it is hatched until it is well-grown and covered with down, 

 thrusts its head into its parent's throat to partake of the 

 macerated food reserved for its support. 



Geographical distribution. Abroad, the Cormorant is 

 found breeding in Europe, including Iceland and the 

 Faroes, in Asia, North Africa, and along the Atlantic side 

 of North America. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Top of head and 

 neck, black, interspersed with thin white feathers ; those 

 springing from the back of the head grow longer and more 

 hair-like in the nuptial season, forming a crest of sparsely 



1 I have frequently watched Cormorants in a state of captivity 

 building their nests, and have seen the male dive to the bottom of the 

 pond and come up with sticks or coarse grass in his beak. With crest 

 erected and apparently looking very excited, he carries the material to 

 the rock selected for breeding-purposes. The female looks ridiculous when 

 receiving the attentions of her mate ; she retracts her neck between her 

 shoulders, and with beak pointing vertically upwards, she utters a 

 hoarse laughing cry, and then either snatches the stick from her mate 

 or allows him to deposit it beside the nest. 



2 In a large colony a Cormorant arrives trailing a mass of seaweed, 

 but on the way to the nest much of this is snatched from him by the 

 birds on other nests. 



