A LABRADOR SPRING 
green. The inside of the mouth is one of their 
greatest charms, and, according to Selous, is 
displayed during courtship; it is coloured a 
vivid, theatrical blue, which contrasts in a 
striking manner with the bare, orange throat. 
How irresistible a cormorant beau must be 
when he casts his jewelled eyes at his lady love, 
and opens on her the blue grotto of his mouth! 
To complete his charms, he is provided with 
two little tufts of feathers, one either side of his 
head, from which he gets his specific name. 
From afar we scented their domiciles, for 
an all pervading ‘‘ ancient and a fish-like ” smell 
rose upon the air. We counted 204 nests, 
basket-like structures six inches to a foot high 
and a foot and a half across, made of sticks and 
seaweed cunningly woven together and lined 
with grasses. Some were decorated, —I use 
the word advisedly, — with large gulls’ feath- 
ers, and many with branches of evergreen, — 
balsam, fir, spruce, juniper and laurel. Nearly 
all contained eggs, chalky white and dirty, 
from one to five in number. One needed a 
strong stomach and a sure foot to walk about 
these rocks slippery with ‘‘ la farine des cormo- 
rants,’ which painted rocks and nests alike a 
112 
