i66 BIRD WATCHING 



at the time, and should they be thought minute to 

 the point of tediousness, I can only in extenuation 

 plead the title of this book, whilst assuring the reader, 

 that however it may lie between us two, the bird, 

 at any rate, is in no way to blame. 



Courtship, love-making. — " The way in which the 

 male cormorant makes love to the female is as 

 follows : — Either at once from where he stands, or 

 after first waddling a step or two, he makes an im- 

 pressive jump or hop towards her, and stretching his 

 long neck straight up, or even a little backwards, he 

 at the same time throws back his head so that it is 

 in one line with it, and opens his beak rather widely. 

 In a second or so he closes it, and then he opens 

 and shuts it again several times in succession, rather 

 more quickly. Then he sinks forward with his breast 

 on the rock, so that he lies all along it, and fanning 

 out his small, stiff tail, bends it over his back whilst 

 at the same time stretching his head and neck back- 

 wards towards it, till with his beak he sometimes 

 seizes and, apparently, plays with the feathers. In 

 this attitude he may remain for some seconds more 

 or less, having all the while a languishing or ecstatic 

 expression, after which he brings his head forward 

 again, and then repeats the performance some three 

 or four or, perhaps, half-a-dozen times. This would 

 seem to be the full courting display, the complete 

 figure so to speak, but it is not always fully gone 

 through. It may be acted part at a time. The 

 first part, commencing with the hop — the simple aveu 

 as it may be called — is not always followed by the 

 ecstasy in the recumbent posture, and the last is 

 still more often indulged in without this preliminary. 



