GANNETS— CORMORANTS. 



299 



Fig. 55.— The Common Gansbt 

 (Jiysparus hasmnus). 



The Gannets are distributed over the seas of the greater part of the world, 

 and are easily recognisable both from their internal and external characters. 



Like the Tropic-Birda, they have a nearly 

 straight bill without any hook in it, and there 

 is a small and scarcely perceptible pouch, 

 though much of the face and throat is bare. 



During the breeding season the Gannets 

 leave their fishing grounds to a great extent, 

 and our own species resorts to certain rooky 

 places on our coast, of which Ailsa Craig and 

 the Bass Rock are the best 

 known, and there builds a The Gannets. — 

 rough nest of sticks and Sub-order Sulce. 

 seaweed, and lays a single 

 chalky-white egg. This chalky egg is a 

 peculiarity of nearly every member of the 

 Pelican-like birds, and in the Gannets and 

 Cormorants it is a distinct feature. On 

 scrubbing the egg, however, with a brush, the 

 chalky surface can be removed, and the egg 

 appears of a delicate blue, like that of a 

 Heron. The flight of a Gannet is very fine, 

 and the birds are capable of covering great distances in a very short space 

 of time, while it is certain that during the nesting season the parent birds 

 have to go far afield to their fishing grounds to procure food for the young. 

 Only one egg is laid, and the young birds are at first naked, and of a slaty- 

 black colour. They then become covered with a thick coating of white down, 

 and afterwards attain their first full plumage, which is greyish-brown with 

 white spots, but it is believed that five moults are required before the birds 

 attain their full white plumage. 



Although agreeing in osteological characters with the preceding groups, 

 the Cormorants and Darters have certain evident peculi- 

 arities which separate them from the Gannets and Tropic- 

 Birds. The bill is more raptorial, and is furnished with 

 a hook at the end, and the tail-feathers are more stiffened 

 than in these birds. This is especially the case with the 

 Darters. There is, however, no perceptible pouch externally. 



In the British Islands we have two representatives of the sub-order, the 

 Common Cormov&xit {Phalacrocorax cario) and the Shag (P. graculus). The 

 former is the larger bird of the two, and has fourteen tail-feathers ; while 

 the Shag is smaller and greener, and has only twelve tail-feathers. In this 

 way the young birds of the two species, which are brown, can always be 

 distinguished. Cormorants are found nearly everywhere on the face of the 

 globe, and are particularly numerous in New Zealand and the adjacent 

 islands. 



Cormorants are great fish- eaters, and they are consequently excellent 

 swimmers and divers. They often nest on trees in inland places, but as 

 a rule their nest is placed on the rocks adjoining the sea. The young are 

 hatched perfectly naked, and are ugly little black morsels, like the nestlings 

 of the Gannet ; but they are afterwards covered with dense down of a sooty- 

 brown colour, and their first full plumage is brown, with a white under- 

 surface. In the breeding plumage the old birds generally don a crest, and 



The Cormorants.— 

 Sub-order 



Flialacrocoraces. 



