The Cormorant. >^s 



Mayo) ; in higli trees near tlie sea, or even far from the coast, generally near well 

 stocked rivers and lakes. Mr. H. Scebohin mentions an interesting colony of 

 Cormorants on trees, which he saw on an i.sland in Lough Cooter, near Gort, in the 

 south of Galway. It was ten miles from the sea, and there were fifty nests built on 

 lofty trees. If there be no rocks or high trees, or the country be flat, in a locality 

 which they have selected as suital)le, they will place their nest on the ground, in 

 pollard willows, in low bushes, or even in swamp tussocks "just above the surface 

 of the water," as Sir Walter Buller has recorded of them in New Zealand. Dr. 

 Sclater and the late Mr. W. A. Forbes found them in Hoorster Mere, in Holland, 

 building on a circular space, perhaps fift}' yards in diameter, cleared of reeds, in 

 which the Cormorants nests stood thick together on the swamp3' soil. The Cor- 

 morant, which invariably nests in communities, forms, when it builds by the sea, its 

 nest of sea-weed, from one to two feet in height, only slightly hollowed out, and 

 lined with any green leaves it can collect in the vicinity. When these birds build 

 on the ground or on trees in inland situations, the structure consists of piles of 

 sticks, and reeds, with green grass, often added to, from year to 3"ear, till it attains 

 to several feet in height. Extensive areas or patches, on and beneath the rocks, 

 of greenish-white excrement, (fatal to all vegetation coming in contact with it), 

 and its disgusting odour, mingled with that of the decaying regurgitated fragments 

 of fish, that exclusively forms their food, invariabl}' localise the site of a Cor- 

 morant rookery. 



The date of their nesting varies somewhat with the season, but as a rule the}- 

 begin to build, or patch their old dwellings, during April, and have finished laying 

 generally by the end of Ma}', or before the middle of June, at latest. The eggs, 

 elongated- oval in shape, and numbering from four to six, are white, rough, and 

 of a soft chalky consistency, with a pale greenish-blue underground, which can be 

 seen only when the eggs are newly laid, and before they become covered, as they verj- 

 soon do, with excrement and dirt. Both parents take a turn at sitting, which lasts 

 for a lunar month. If the nest of a pair be robbed, the}- will occasionally replenish 

 their home by stealing a " sitting," from the unguarded nests of their neighbours. 

 But woe betide them if they are caught ! The young squabs, which are hatched 

 with sealed eyelids, have bluish-black naked bodies, brown feet, and horn coloured 

 beaks. The birds then assume separate duties. The female covers and protects her 

 brood ; while the male fetches food both for his mate and the young, each of whom 

 in turn thrusting its head right down into liis gullet, seizes the half digested 

 morsels as he disgorges them. 



After their first moult, the young Cormorants are brownish-black, slightly 

 washed Avith green above, and dirty-white beneath, with flesh-coloured bills 



Vol. ni 2 c 



