THE COMMON OH GUEAT CORMORANT. 241 



ill its crop were found fourteen pollans :" sufficient e\ddence, cer- 

 tainly, that this individual had been fishing there, for nowhere else 

 nearer than Lough Erne could this species of fish have been ob- 

 tained. A scientific friend visiting Massareene deer-park, on the 

 borders of Lough Neagh, on the 3rd of December, 1847, was at- 

 tracted by the singular appearance of about a hundred cor- 

 morants perched on trees (probably thirty feet in height) on a 

 low wooded island of the lake, where they remained for two 

 hours, or so long as he had an opportunity of observing them. 

 The country-people there believe that these birds daily visit the sen, 

 and that " they would die if they did not get a drink of salt 

 water within the twenty-four hours" ! In the beginning of July 

 1834 we saw cormorants about the lakes in the west, between 

 Westport and Cong, and soon afterwards, about the lakes of Kil- 

 larney. An old friend informs me, that previous to the last thirty- 

 five years these birds were almost daily to be seen up the river 

 Lagan, especially at high water, often perching on the overhang- 

 ing trees at Annadale, where the flow of the tide terminates. 



Breeding -haunts. — This species bred in numbers, annually, at 

 the Gobbins, until of late years; about 1845 being the last occa- 

 sion on which it was known to do so. It built there very early in 

 the season. " Common cormorants formerly bred in considerable 

 numbers at Down Hill, in the county of Londonderry, but since 

 the recent blasting of the rocks for the formation of a railway, 

 they have deserted that locality, and have resorted to some of the 

 high rocky headlands adjacent to the Giant^s Causeway, where 

 they remain throughout the year. When fired at, they usually 

 fly out to some distance at sea, but have been occasionally 

 observed to plunge down almost perpendicularly from the rocks 

 and evade the fowler by diving beyond his reach.""^ This cormo- 

 rant is said to nidify in the caves on the north of the island of 

 Rathlin.f It has more than once come under my own notice in 

 its breeding-haunts, which were lofty tabular rocks sheltered by 



* Mr. J. O'N. Higginsoti. 



t Dr. J. D. Marsliall. It broods at tlic Mull of Oe, Islay, the uearest land uorl li 

 of Rathlin.— AV. T. 



VOL. III. R 



