160 



10 



risk of becoming acquainted with the sharpness of his mandibles, and of being scared by the 

 unearthly croaking which always accompanied the bite. Being one of his especial friends, I was 

 permitted to stroke and handle him with impunity, and he would even fly several hundred yards 

 to meet me when I called. The kitchen-fire was his great delight, and he would bask near it 

 for hours ; but at such times it was imprudent to leave either fish or flesh within his reach. Once 

 he carried off a newly skinned rabbit ; and at another time he attacked a living Duck, and even 

 succeeded in swallowing the head and part of the neck before a rescue could be effected. He 

 would sometimes extend his explorations beyond the kitchen, wandering through the passages as 

 calmly as if the house were his own, but always betraying himself by the loud flap, flap of his 

 great webbed feet upon the flags. For about the first year of his life the iris of the eye was of 

 a brownish colour ; then it became pale bluish green, and towards the end of the second twelve- 

 month bright emerald-green. During the third year he rapidly acquired his adult plumage ; 

 but just as this was approaching its perfection he was unfortunately killed by an old half-blind 

 dog, which in former days had been celebrated for its address in seizing and killing wounded 

 Cormorants." 



The Cormorant breeds either in cliffs and almost inaccessible rocks or else in trees. When 

 placed on a rock the nest is usually constructed of sticks and seaweed, and when on trees it is a 

 tolerably lai*ge and stout structure of sticks and twigs lined with grass and weed. Mr. Benzon 

 informs me that in Denmark it usually builds on oak or ash trees, breeding in colonies so close 

 together that as many as forty to fifty nests have been counted on one large tree. Both male 

 and female assist in collecting the materials for the nest, as also in incubation ; and the eggs, 

 four in number, are deposited late in April or in May. The birds are by no means cleanly ; and 

 by the time the young are hatched and ready to leave the nest it is extremely offensive, being 

 plastered all round with dung. The eggs are rather elongated in form, bluish white in colonr, 

 and are closely incrusted with an irregular layer of a white chalky substance. Those in my 

 collection vary from 2^- by 1^- to 2^f by lf§ inch. 



In a letter from my friend Dr. Kutter, written just ten years ago, he gives some interesting 

 notes respecting a visit he made to a breeding-place of the Cormorants in Posen, which I translate 

 as follows : — " In May I visited the breeding-place of the Cormorants and Herons ; and I can 

 assure you that it gave me the greatest pleasure, and I have seldom seen any thing that made 

 more impression on my mind. On a small island in the Klossowski lake (North Posen) 

 covered with lofty old fir and oak trees, nested closely packed together about 600 to 800 pairs 

 of these birds, the Cormorants being far the more numerous, though they have only settled there 

 during the last six years, and have by degrees pushed out the formerly so much more numerous 

 Herons. Many of the birds were still sitting ; the young of the others were hatched and sat on 

 the edge of the nest. The noise and tumult of the thousand voices was deafening, as all seemed 

 crying out at once, the old ones quarrelling, the young singing out for food, all hoarse and 

 unmusical ; and above all one could hear the rushing sound of the wings of the birds as they 

 came and went. Now and then I could hear the cry of a Peregrine (of which bird I found two 

 nests on the island), which was circling round high in the air, and the shrill whistle of a Kite 

 (Milvus migrans or regalis, which were both here in great numbers ; for I counted fourteen to 

 sixteen). Over the lake hovered, fishing, a host of Gulls, which, as usual, were pursuing their 



