i64 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



The Darter is docile, and with little training it becomes very sociable. The 

 Indian species is constantly carried about by the natives on their river boats. In 

 the Zoological Gardens in London there is verj' often a species to be seen in 

 captivit}', and its diving powers in pnrsuit of fishes at feeding time, forms one of 

 the most interesting sights in that celebrated menagerie. 



Familv—PHALA CROC OR A CWyE. 



The Cormorant. 



Phalacrocorax carbo, L,IXN. 



THE geographical range of this handsome species, which is by preference a 

 sea-loving bird, is ver}^ wide. It breeds along all the coasts of Burope, 

 including tlie Faeroes and Iceland, as well as by suitable marshes, lakes, and rivers, 

 often hundreds of miles from the sea. In most parts of the Asiatic Continent it 

 is a resident, and it is to be met with in nearly all the islands of the eastern 

 Archipelago. One of us has noted its nesting places by the rivers in the 

 interior of Sumatra, and on the trees bordering the elevated lake in central Burn. 

 In Africa it breeds in many localities north of the Sahara, and probably also in 

 South Africa as well, although its eggs have not yet been taken there. It is a 

 resident, a prolific breeder, and a voracious destroyer of the introduced fishes, in 

 New Zealand and Tasmania ; in Australia it is only less abundant. It ranges all 

 along the eastern shores of N. America, from the south of Canada to as far north 

 as Greenland. Bej'ond the breeding range here roughly defined, the Cormorant 

 is found as a winter migrant, by the coasts, lakes, and rivers of many districts 

 in all those Continents, where fish is abundant. 



In the United Kingdom it breeds wherever a suitable site presents itself; on 

 ledged rocks on the coast ; on an ivy clad ruined wall (as at Castle Carra, in Co. 



