458 



ON THE FEEDING OF YOUNG CORMORANTS. [June 6, 



surrounding the other flexor tendons. The fiexor brevis hallueis, 

 which is present, though small, is thus the only functional flexor of 

 that digit. 



June 6, 1882. 

 Prof. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The Secretary called attention to the curious way in which the 

 young Cormorants, lately hatched in the Gardens, were fed by the 

 parent bird, and exhibited a drawing by Mrs. Hugh Blackburn, taken 

 on the 9th ult., illustrating this subject. 



Two Cormorants deposited by Capt. Salvin in the autumn of 1881 

 had paired in March last, and built a nest of sticks on a stump in 

 the enclosure called the " Gull pond." Two young ones were 

 hatched on the 22nd April last, after four weeks' incubation, both 

 parents taking turns on the nest. The young birds were at first 

 naked, but soon became covered with black down-plumage, whence 

 they were now beginning to moult into their adult dress. 



Cormorants and their young (from a drawing by Mrs. Hugh Blaekbvirn). 



As would be seen by the illustration, the parents fed the young ones 

 by allowing them to poke their heads far down into the parents' 

 throats and to extract the semidigested fish from the stomach. 



