COMMON CORMORANT. 467 



tral ridge. The oesophagus is extremely dilatable, and as far as the mid- 

 dle of the neck is of larger diameter than below, but it again dilates as it 

 enters the stomach. Its length is five inches and a half. The inner coat 

 is smooth in its dilated part, but in the rest is raised into numerous lon- 

 gitudinal ridges or folds, which at the lower part are undulated. The 

 stomach is oblong, four and a half inches long, quite membranous, and 

 without apparent central tendons. The gastric glands are disposed so as 

 to occupy two spaces, the one three and a half inches by two, the other a 

 little smaller. The inner coat is soft and without wrinkles. The in- 

 testine is five feet two inches long, at its upper part three-twelfths in 

 diameter, gradually diminishing to one-twelfth. At the distance of two 

 inches from the anus are two coeca, three-twelfths long, one-twelfth in 

 diameter, and rounded. The contents of the stomach were fragments of 

 fish, with numerous bones, and a pebble about half an inch in diameter. 

 The heart triangular, much flattened. The liver of two very unequal 

 lobes, the right one two inches and a half long, the other one and a half. 

 The specimen, which I had preserved in spirits, was examined in my pre- 

 sence by my friend Mr Macgillivray. Whether the fact of the anterior 

 aperture of the organ of smell being open in the young Cormorant has been 

 observed by any other person than myself, I know not ; but it would seem 

 that the general opinion is, that Cormorants have no external nares in any 

 stage, and although some state that in the adult they exist, and are ex- 

 tremely small, others allege that there are none at all. 



A young female, shot in the end of October, on being carefully ex- 

 amined, was found to present the following characters. 



The length to the end of the tail was 36 inches, to the end of the 

 wings 29|, to the end of the outer toe 34^ ; the extent of the wings 55 ; 

 the weight 5 lb. lOi oz. 



Bill along the ridge and unguis black, the sides brownish-grey ; the 

 lower mandible brownish-grey, dusky on the sides at the middle, the bare 

 skin at the base yellow, as is the gular sac. Upper part of the head and 

 hind neck brownish-black ; the back greenish-black, its fore part, the sca- 

 pulars and the wing-coverts brownish-grey, the feathers edged with green- 

 ish-black, and an outer margin of brownish-white, most conspicuous on 

 the secondary coverts ; the quills brownish-black, the secondaries tinged 

 with grey on the outer edge ; the tail greyish-black, the §hafts greyish- 

 blue. Upper part of the throat brownish-white ; the rest of the neck 

 greyish- white, mixed with brown ; the breast and abdomen white, the 



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