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parts dull white slightly marked with brown ; wings and tail dark brown ; bill dark brown above and 

 pale brown below. 



The Cormorant inhabits Europe and Asia, in suitable localities, ranging down to South Africa, 

 Australia, and New Zealand ; and in America it frequents the Atlantic coasts from Hudson's Bay 

 down to Georgia and the Carolinas. 



In Great Britain this bird is widely distributed, being met with on most parts of the coast 

 suitable to its habits, but is more numerous in the north than in the south. It is, Mr. Cecil 

 Smith informs me, by no means common in Guernsey, as the Shag, which is there always called 

 " Cormorant," almost entirely takes its place in all the islands. It is, however, resident along 

 the south coasts of England; but Mr. Cecil Smith says that it is only a chance or occasional 

 visitant to Somersetshire, and the few that do occur on the coast or inland are usually in imma- 

 ture dress. On the east coast of England it is rarer than in former days. Sir Thomas Browne 

 speaks of the Cormorant breeding on trees at Reedham in his time, and adds that from there 

 King Charles the First was wont to be supplied ; and Mr. Stevenson informs me, " even within 

 a comparatively recent period Cormorants have nested occasionally in Suffolk in the trees 

 surrounding the Fritton Decoy ; but now it occurs only as a straggler in winter, and then 

 chiefly in immature plumage. The neighbourhood of the coast and the larger broads is their 

 chief resort; but it has been seen as far inland as the Yare, above Norwich." Formerly it 

 used to nest on the rocks at Flamborough, on the Yorkshire coast; but it has been driven 

 away by the ceaseless persecution of summer excursionists from the neighbouring watering- 

 places. Mr. Cordeaux says that he has lately seen it off the Headland in July ; but the nearest 

 breeding-station to the Humber is on the Farn Islands, where, according to Mr. Hancock, it is 

 common, and resident. 



Referring to its presence in Scotland, Mr. Robert Gray writes (B. of West of Scotland, 

 p. 454): — "The well-known figure of this conspicuous bird is a never failing accessory to the 

 coast scenery of many districts of the mainland of Scotland, especially the south-western counties. 

 In Ayrshire and Wigtonshire it is much more common than its ally, the Green Cormorant ; and 

 in these counties it is found breeding on rocky precipices overhanging the sea, where it occupies 

 separate ledges, as well as on islands in inland lakes, at a distance of many miles from the coast. 

 There is a large breeding- colony on Loch Moan, in Ayrshire — a place but little visited, and 

 distinguished for nothing but these Cormorants and the sterile scenery by which they are 

 surrounded. In the breeding-season of 1867 this loch was visited by a fishing party, who, 

 finding nothing in the loch itself, every fish having been devoured by the birds, launched a boat 

 they had brought across the hills, and proceeded to the island, where they built a pyramid of 

 Cormorants' eggs, which they had no difficulty in gathering, to a height of two or three feet, 

 and smashed the entire lot with heavy stones. One of the party, an officer in the 33rd Regiment, 

 informed me that, though the eggs were not counted, he was certain of more than a thousand 

 having been destroyed. A similar colony existed a few years ago on the lochs of Mochrum and 

 Drumwalt, in Wigtonshire. In 1867, when visiting these lochs, I found the numbers of the 

 Cormorants greatly diminished ; and I have since been informed that only a few pairs are now to 

 be found nesting there. Their unwelcome presence had been too much for the resident keeper's 

 goodnature ; and, indeed, it would be a strong liking for Cormorants that would tolerate even 



