142 LITTLE COBMOBANT. 



The Little Cormorant is an inhabitant of the eastern parts of 

 Europe and Asia. It is common in Hungary and Dalmatia, and is 

 found along the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas. It occurs 

 also in Greece, and occasionally wanders into Germany, Belgium, 

 France, and Italy, but not, as stated by M. Dubois, by mistake, 

 into the British Isles. It is very abundant, according to Lord Lilford, 

 in Epirus, in the Ionian Isles, where it does not '^ appear to have 

 any particular preference for salt water to fresh, as it is often to be 

 found in ditches and flooded meadows far from the sea." — ("Ibis," 

 vol. ii, p. 355.) Lord Lilford also saw it in Albania. In Italy it 

 clearly has come under the notice of Savi, but at the time he wrote 

 he seemed to connect it with the young of the Shag. In Greece 

 Count Milhle says that although it is taken on all the great lakes, 

 it is far less plentiful than Carho cormoranus, (The Cormorant.) 



"It prefers the large lakes and swamps to the sea, which it only 

 frequents in winter. It probably breeds there, though I cannot say 

 anything with precision about its nidification, for it is taken throughout 

 the whole summer. Naumann's remark that it climbs up the reeds is 

 very correct, and in this it resembles Ardea minuta. It is very shy, 

 and has a great tenacity of life, so that many when hard hit are 

 lost by the sportsman, and consequently it is very difficult to get 

 perfect specimens for preservation." 



Salvadori (op. cit.) writes of this bird: — "It is very rare in Italy, 

 where it is only captured accidentally. It has been observed in 

 Venetia, Tuscany, Neapolitan Territories (Costa), and in Sardinia. 

 An individual killed not far from Turin, on the Po, October 28th., 

 1866, is preserved in the Museum of Turin. I myself had the 

 good fortune to find two individuals on the north of the river 

 Tenna, October 2nd., 1856, and to kill one of them, which is pre- 

 served in my own collection. It appears that it has been found 

 more frequently in Sardinia than elsewhere, since I know of three 

 individuals which have been taken there : one in the museum of 

 Cagliari, a second in that of Turin, and a third in that of Geneva." 



Doderlein (op. cit.) records one specimen seen in the market of 

 Naples by Mr. Beck, in March, 1854, which was announced and 

 figured by the illustrious Professor Orazzio Cortio in his "Fauna 

 Neapolitana." It was also observed the same year by Benoit near 

 the Neapolitan Preparatoire, from which it is supposed that it may 

 be eventually found in Sicily, the more so as it occurs in Tuscany, 

 Sardinia, and even on the Po near Turin (Salvadori.) 



Gerbe attributes to Nardo that this bird nests in the vicinity of 

 Venice, but in the "Prospetti" of Nardo this is not mentioned. It 



