250 PELECANID^. 



will be found in the Supplement to his ' Ornithological Dictionary.' 

 The virtues of the common and green cormorants as food, are not 

 much enhanced by a note from the late Mr. G. Matthews ; that 

 " they were both eaten by the Norwegian sailors ; — when they 

 had nothing else" ! Audubon (vol. iii. p. 458) furnishes good 

 information on the breeding-haunts, young, &c., of the cormo- 

 rant, as observed in North America. 



THE GEEEN CORMORANT. 



Shag; Crested Shag or Cormorant. 



Phalacrocorax gracidus, Linn, (sp.) 



Pelecamis „ „ 



Carho cristatus, Fabr. (sp.), Temm. 



Is resident, inhabiting all quarters of the coast, but 

 generally less numerous than the common species. 



Montagu remarks, in his ' Ornithological Dictionary,' that this 

 bird never visits fresh water ; and in the Supplement of that 

 work records one instance of its doing so. Mr. Selby, too, 

 mentions it as "never frequenting fresh- water lakes or rivers" 

 (p. 452). The idea that this species is strictly marine, and differs 

 from the great cormorant in this respect, is very general. In 

 M'^Skimmin's ' History of Carrickfergus,' where the latter is said 

 to visit Lough Neagh daily, the other is stated never to leave 

 " the salt water /' and at Horn Head, a reward is offered for the 

 destruction of the one, owing to a belief that it feeds on young 

 salmon, while the other is considered innocent of all evil ; — i. e., to 

 man. This is borne out chiefly by the gamekeeper, in so far that 

 in its nest he finds only sea-fish ; chiefly herring fry and sand-eels. 

 1 have been favoured by the Earl of Enniskillen with two spe- 

 cimens of the green cormorant, taken far inland on difl^erent occa- 

 sions. One of them, in the month of January 1839 (?), and I 

 think soon after the great hurricane, was captured alive, near 



