BIRDS 181 



at the Zoo. The group is widely distributed in the warmer 

 parts of the globe, and its members haunt the banks of rivers 

 and the neighbourhood of swamps. The best-known species is 

 the European Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotahis], which is found not 

 only in South Europe, but North Africa, and also in parts of 

 West Africa. 



Cormorants. These are smaller birds than the pelicans, and 

 are characterized by their long bodies and necks and the 

 possession of a moderately long beak, rather narrow, and hooked 

 at its tip. Both face and throat are bare of feathers. Cormorants 

 are excellent divers and swimmers, and their greediness is 

 extreme. Two species are well known in British seas. One, 

 the Black Cormorant (Phalacrocorax car bo), has an extra- 

 ordinarily wide range, including all Europe, North Africa, most 

 of Asia, and the Atlantic shores of North America. The other 

 British species is the Green Cormorant or Shag (P. grac^llus). 

 The Chinese and Japanese train cormorants to fish for them, 

 and, until properly trained, a ring is put round the neck to prevent 

 the captures from being swallowed. 



Other birds related to the cormorants are Gannets and Darters. 

 Of the former the most familiar type is the Common Gannet 

 (vSWtf bassand], found on the coasts of the northern seas, and 

 breeding in vast numbers at one locality on the east coast of 

 Britain, the Bass Rock. The Scottish name for this bird is 

 the Solan Goose, a name which suggests its general appearance, 

 though about the neck and head it is much more like a cor- 

 morant. The head and neck are buff-coloured and the wing -tips 

 black, but otherwise the plumage is white. The " boobies ", so 

 named from their fearlessness, of which we read in accounts of 

 voyages to southern seas, are closely allied to gannets. 



Darters or Snake-Birds are a small group with exceedingly 

 long flexible neck, small head, and long, extremely sharp-pointed 

 beak. The legs are attached far back to the elongated body. 

 These forms haunt the inland waters of South America, Africa, 

 India and Further India, and Australia. 



Frigate and Tropic Birds are both distinguished by their 

 pelagic habits, i.e. they are commonly found in the open sea at 

 great distances from land. Each group contains but a single 

 genus, and the distribution is similar, as both of them are found 

 in the warmer parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. 



