78 COMMON CORMORANT. 



with whitish, particularly on the breast and in the 

 middle of the belly : the feathers on the top of the 

 back, the scapulars, and wing-coverts are ashy-grey in 

 the middle, edged with deep brown : the beak is clear 

 brown : the irides brown. 



This bird is common in the northern countries of 

 the old and new worlds, especially on the coasts of 

 Holland, and on those of England and France ; but 

 rare in the interior, or towards the south. It builds, 

 according to circumstances, either in the cliffs of the 

 rocks, or trees, and among rushes : the female laying 

 three or four eggs equally thick at each end, and of 

 a greenish-white colour and irregular calcareous sur- 

 face. Its food consists of fishes, but more particu- 

 larly eels. In winter they disperse along the shores, 

 and visit the fresh waters, where they commit great 

 depredations among the fish : they are remarkably 

 voracious, having a most rapid digestion : they are 

 very cautious, except when they have gorged them- 

 selves, when they become so stupid that it is fre- 

 quently an easy thing to take them in a net, or even 

 by means of a noose thrown over their heads. Their 

 smell, when alive, is excessively rank and disagree- 

 able, and their flesh so disgusting, that even the 

 Greenlanders will rarely eat them. 



On the rocks of the sea-coast it is not an uncom- 

 mon thing to see several of these birds with extended 

 wings drying themselves in the wind : in this position 

 they remain sometimes nearly an hour without once 

 closing their wings ; and as soon as these are suf- 

 ficiently dry to enable the feathers to imbibe the oil, 

 they press this substance from the receptacle on their 



