PELECAXID.E. 175 



them witli gre.it delight, assuring us that after they had hccu buried a 

 little time in the earth they would be as good as Turkeys ! 



Like most sea-fowl, if skinned and soaked for a night in milk-and- 

 water, a Cormorant is by no means bad eating, and we luivo known 

 an old lady to much appreciate a "Black Goose" as she called it. A 

 yoiingcr lady, accustomed to game, who ]jartook of one, declared it tasted 

 so like Grouse that she would not have known the difference but for its size. 

 When any of the sailors on the Xorth Devon coast shoot Cormorants or 

 Shags, they carry them from house to house endeavouring to sell them as 

 "Muscovy'Ducks" ! 



The Cormorant is a common bird on the northern and southern coasts 

 of Devon, and there are a few stations where the birds may be seen in 

 considerable numbers. One such station is on a high cliff in Ladi-am Eay 

 between the mouth of the Otter and Sidmouth, which we visited one day, 

 and, lying down on the top and looking over, beheld a great assemblage 

 of Cormorants on the ledges close below. Borne were preening their 

 feathers, some were quarrelling, some were asleep. After watching them 

 for some time a friend with us tired a rifle, when great was the com- 

 motion and rustling of wings as the birds, a hundred or more, left their 

 ledges and flew out over the sea. We have seen eighteen sitting together 

 on the top of the Clerk Kock between Dawlish and Teignmouth. The 

 strong smell arising from a nesting-station of Coi'morants is ])erceptiV)le 

 at some distance. Cormorants are often caught in the fishermen's nets, 

 especially the young birds, which are white-breasted, and these are 

 believed by the fishermen to be a difl'erent species, and specimens have 

 been forwarded to us as great rarities. Although, as a rule, nesting on 

 the cliffs, Cormorants not unfrcqucntly place their great nests on trees. 

 AVe know of an instance in Pembrokeshire, where a number nest annually 

 in a wood at blebech, the seat of Baron de lUitzen. Cormorants have 

 been seen perched on the spire of a church in Barnstaple. 



On the 15th June, 1883, when in company with Messrs. J. Gatcombe 

 and J. Brooking liowe, at Wembury, near Plymouth, we saw a Cor- 

 morant with a conspicuous white collar around the neck (Zool. 1883, 

 p. 422). We watched it for some time through a powerful field-glass. 

 Mr. Gatcombe mentions that in April 1877 he saw on the rocks at 

 "Wembury " a Cormorant in rather peculiar jdumagc ; the whole of the 

 lower parts, from the cbiu downwards, was almost white, and the back 

 and wings apiiarently silvery grey." It is remarkable that Mr. Clogg 

 had seen a similar iurd on the Cornish coast a few months ])revioush-, 

 and Mr. J. C. !Mansel-Pleydell observed one like it in Swanage Bay on 

 the 2:')rd June following, it woidd seem that this peculiarly mai'ked 

 bird had been makin;;: a tour round the coast. 



