70 



BIRD GALLERY. 



with lightning speed and unerring aim, and the prey is transfixed in a 

 moment. The 'hird then rises to the surface, and jerldng the fish into 

 the air dexterously catches and swallows it. The flight is laboured, but 

 in the water they are perfectly at ease, swimming with only the head 

 and neck exposed, or if danger threatens with only the beak above the 

 surface. When diving in pursuit of fish, the wings are but little used, 

 the feet acting as powerful paddles. The nest, which is made of sticks 

 and lined with roots or moss, is placed in a tree or bush, generally 

 in company with many others. The eggs are from two to five in 

 number, chalky greenish blue, and much like those of Cormorants but 

 smaller. 



[Case 40.] About forty species of Cormorants {Phalacrocorax) (800-806) are 

 known, distributed over almost the entire face of the globe. The bill 

 is more raptorial than in the Darters and furnished with a hook at the 

 end. Two species occur commonly on our coasts, the Common 

 Cormorant (P. carbo) (800) and the Green Cormorant or Shag 

 [P.graculus) (801). The ornamental white plumes on the head and 

 neck of the former and the crest on the latter are only assumed during 

 the breeding-season and afterwards shed. Examples of both these 

 species in adult and immature, brown or brown-and- white, plumage are 

 exhibited. Almost all the species are black, or black and white, more or 



[Case 43.] less glossed with purplish, blue or green. A number of very handsome 

 white-breasted species inhabit the colder parts of the southern hemi- 

 sphere, ranging from South America to New Zealand. An example of 

 these will be found in the White-bellied Cormorant (P. albiventer) 

 (802) ; and two handsome little species from New Zealand and Australia, 

 the Frilled and White-throated Cormorants (P- melanoleucus (806) and 

 P. brevirostris (806)), are also exhibited. 



Family II. SuLiDiE. Gannets. 



[Case 43.] The Gannets or Boobies {Sula) (807-810) are a widely distributed 

 group of oceanic birds represented by about a dozen species. They are 

 easily recognised by their long, stout, tapering bill, sharply pointed at 

 the tip and serrated on the cutting edges of the mandibles, their long 

 pointed wings and wedge-shaped tail. All are birds of very powerful 

 flight and capture the fish on which they prey by diving, the headlong 

 plunge being made with great velocity from a considerable height. 

 One of the most familiar is the Common Gannet or Solan Goose 

 {S. bassand) (807), a well-known British species which nests at several 

 stations, such as Lundy Island, Grassholm, the Bass Rock, Ailsa Craig, 

 St. Kilda, the Little Skellig, &c. The nest, a mass of seaweed and 

 grass, is placed on a ledge of rock or, in some cases, on a low tree, and 



