BRITISH BIRDS. 373 



line passes from the brow over the eyes, which are 

 surrounded with a naked blue skin, and, like those 

 of the Owl, are set in the head so as to look nearly 

 straight forward, and the extreme paleness of the 

 irides gives them a keen wild stare. The gape of 

 the mouth is very wide, and seems more lengthened, 

 by a slip of naked black skin, which is extended on 

 each side from the corners beyond the cheeks : 

 these features of its countenance, altogether, give 

 it somewhat the appearance of wearing spectacles. 

 A loose black bare dilatable skin, capable of great 

 distension, hung from the blades of the under bill, 

 and extended over the throat, serves it as a pouch 

 to carry provisions to its mate, or its young. The 

 body is flat and well cloathed with feathers; the 

 neck long: the crown of the head, nape, and, in 

 some specimens, the hinder part of the neck,, are of 

 a buff colour: greater quills and bastard wings, 

 black, and the rest of the 'plumage white. The tail 

 is wedge-shaped, and consists of twelve tapering 

 sharp-pointed feathers, the middle ones the longest. 

 The legs and feet are nearly of the same colour 

 and conformation as those of the Cormorant, but 

 they are curiously marked by a pea-green stripe, 

 which runs down the front of each leg, and 

 branches off along the toes. The male and female 

 are nearly alike, but the young birds, during the 

 first year, appear as if they were of a distinct 

 species, for their plumage is then of a dusky colour, 

 speckled all over with triangular white spots. 



They make their nests in the caverns and 

 fissures, or on the ledges of the louring precipice, 

 as well as on the plain surface of the ground : it is 

 formed of a great quantity of withered grasses and 



