174 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



velocity into the water, which splashes up round the mo- 

 mentarily submer<2:ecl bird, and the next second he will 

 reappear flying- up with his captured prey. This may 

 be often witnessed off our Devonshire coast, especially 

 on Torbay, where Gannets arc sometimes very numerous. 

 The upright figures of Cormorants or Shags, sitting on 

 the rocks at the base of the cliffs, are a common and 

 characteristic sight upon the coast. Sometimes long lines 

 of these birds may be seen standing motionless, facing 

 the wind, on the banks of sand laid bare at low-water, each 

 bird havino' its win<Tfs raised as thou"h to admit the air to 

 the feathers on the sides and to dry their plumage. We 

 have seen Turkey-Buzzards sitting on the branches of dead 

 Evergreen or "Live" Oaks in California on foggy mornings 

 in exactly the same attitude. 



Cormorant. Ihalacrocorax carlo (Linn.). 



[Shag, Isle-of-Wight Parson (-Kt-c).] 



Eesident and numerous on all our coasts, and in the estuaries of all 

 our large rivers. 



Cormorants ascend the valley of the Exe considerably above Exeter, 

 and follow the course of streams inland in pursuit of eels and other 

 freshwater fishes. They breed on the clifls along the sea-coast both in 

 Xorth and South Devon, but some of their breeding-places, having 

 become too accessible to egg-collectors, have been abandoued. The 

 Cormorant is not a bird beloved by the angler, who often sees this 

 poacher, either singly or in small iiarties, flying up the course of a stream 

 to take toll of the trout. When tliere are two or three of them, one will 

 generally be found on the top of a tall tree near the water acting as 

 sentinel, while the others are fishing. AVe have sometimes come upon a 

 Cormorant so gorged with trout as to be unable to Hy. The bird will 

 then make some diabolical noises, and ejecting his fish, will rise heavily 

 on wing. We surjirised three Cormorants one day fishing in a pool left 

 by the tide on the i^arnstai)le river, where they had been feasting " not 

 wisely, but too well," on grey mullet, the consequence being that on our 

 approach they could only dive into the water, and became our easy prey. 

 Kot knowing what to do with the three heavy birds, when we had them 

 on the sand, we went up to a labourer, who was working in a field at no 

 great distance, and offered to present them to him. He at once accepted 



