NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



tactics, and I have watched with intense interest the 

 fishing drives of these birds on the Botletli River, in 

 the Ngami country. In these forays the tremendous 

 beating of their great wings upon the water a pelican's 

 wing will measure nine feet eight inches from tip to 

 tip acts naturally with terrifying and most successful 

 results upon the demoralised fish. 



The British cormorant, is, by preference, a frequenter 

 of salt or brackish water ; yet he will, especially in 

 winter, fish diligently in fresh water some way inland. 

 Here, too, he breeds occasionally, near some lake or 

 reservoir. More commonly the nest is found by the 

 sea, on cliffs or rock-stacks, or in some cave, or upon a 

 quiet islet. The nest consists of sea-tang, rushes, sticks, 

 and grasses, and where the birds are numerous the 

 neighbourhood is, from the stench of decomposing 

 fish and excreta, horribly unpleasant. The eggs are 

 usually three in number. The young birds feed literally 

 down the throats of their mothers, thrusting their heads 

 and bills well in and greedily taking the food regurgi- 

 tated for them by their doting parents. The pelican 

 feeds her young much in the same manner, and it is 

 probable that the old and pleasing fable of that bird 

 piercing her own breast and feeding her nestlings with 

 her life-blood may have arisen from the mess of blood 

 and fishy matter which escapes from her crop on to her 

 breast on these occasions. 



The shag, or green cormorant, sometimes known as 

 the crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax gracului}, is by 

 casual observers often mistaken for the common 

 cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo). It is, however, 

 readily to be distinguished by its smaller size and 

 green colouring, the common cormorant being much 

 blacker in hue. The shag breeds for the most part 

 on our western coastline, while the cormorant is to be 



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