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CHAPTER VIH. 



" Jam sibi turn curvis mal temperat unda cariiiis, 

 Quum medio oeleres revolant ex sequore mergi, 

 Clamoremque ferunt ad littora : qu unique marinae 

 In sicco luduut fidica ; notasque paludes 

 Deserit atquae altam supra volat ardea nubem." 



VIBGIL. 



AMONG all the variety of birds of which these islands 

 are more or less prolific in the course of the breeding 

 season, I do not think that any has so completely 

 roused my ardour to possess, or iny ambition to obtain, 

 as the weird-looking and voracious pelican of the 

 ocean, the cormorant (Carlo cormoranu*) ; and my 

 zeal is, perhaps, the more excessive in the cause, by 

 reason that Joseph (whose experience in regard to these 

 matters I am strongly tempted to rely upon) holds out 

 in the present case the faintest or no hope of success, 

 inasmuch as their haunts are situated at a marvellous 

 distance from any position of ordinary accessibility.* 



* This outburst of my youthful ardour will assuredly evoke 

 a smile from many a reader on our south and south-west 

 coasts, where the breeding-haunts of C. cornwranus are M> 



H 



