CORMORANT. 183 
Famity PELECANIDZ. 
CORMORANT. 
PHALACROCORAX CARBO, Linn. 
Pl. XXXL, fig. 1. 
Geogr. distr.—In suitable localities in Europe and Asia; ranging 
to S. Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and in America from 
Hudson’s Bay to Georgia. It occurs on most parts of the British 
coasts, being, however, commoner in the north than in the south. 
Food.—Fish and young birds. 
Nest.—Of sticks and sea-weed, or, when in trees, a bulky structure 
of sticks and twigs, lined with grass and weed. 
Position of nest.—High up on cliffs and almost inaccessible rocks, 
or in trees. 
Number of egqgs.—4. 
Time of nidification.—IV-V ; occasionally earlier or later. 
Mr. Cecil Smith relates that Cormorants collect in 
considerable numbers at their breeding stations, and that 
they show a preference for fir-trees when not nesting upon 
cliffs, in which case they sometimes occupy part of a 
rookery. 
Hewitson states that ‘Cormorants sometimes breed 
upon the ledges of precipices, but choose, in preference, 
those rocks which, standing isolated, are surrounded by 
the sea, upon the tops of which they make their nests. 
On the Fern Islands, where about forty or fifty pairs 
breed, they occupy a low, flat island, slightly elevated 
above the water, and confine themselves to one particular 
and very limited part of it.” 
“‘The nests, which are placed at short distances from 
each other, are large, and sometimes singularly lofty, 
measuring upwards of two feet in height. They are 
composed of a large quantity of the coarser sea-weeds, and 
lined with finer weeds and dry grass.”—(Ill. Eggs Brit. 
Birds, vol. ii., pp. 415, 416.) 
