LITTLE CORMORANT. 179 



Specific Characters. — Beak shorter tlian the head, and slender; 

 tail long, the feathers straight and stiff. Length twenty inches 

 and a half; from carpal joint to tip seven inches and a half; 

 beak from forehead one inch and three tenths; beak from rictus 

 two inches; tarsus one inch; middle toe and claw two inches and 

 a half; tail six inches, and, in the specimen figured only ten quills. 



The Little Cormorant is an inhabitant of the eastern 

 parts of Europe and Asia. It is common in Hungary 

 and Dabnatia, and is found along the shores of the 

 Black and Caspian Seas. It occurs also in Greece, 

 and occasionally wanders into Germany, Belgium, France, 

 and Italy, but not, as stated by M. Dubois, by mistake, 

 into the British Isles. It is very abundant, according 

 to Lord Lilford, in Epirus, in the Ionian Isles, where 

 it does not "appear to have any particular preference 

 for salt vv^ater to fresh, as it is often to be found in 

 ditches and flooded meadows far from the sea." — ("Ibis," 

 vol. ii, p. 355.) Lord Lilford also saw it in Albania. 

 In Italy it clearly has come under the notice of Savi, 

 but at the time he wrote he seemed to connect it 

 with the young of the Shag. In Greece Count Miihle 

 says that although it is taken on all the great lakes, 

 it is far less plentiful than Cario cormoranus, (The 

 Cormorant.) 



"It prefers the large lakes and swamps to the sea, 

 which it only frequents in winter. It probably breeds 

 there, though I cannot say anything with precision 

 about its nidification, for it is taken throughout the 

 whole summer. Naumann's remark that it climbs up 

 the reeds is very correct, and in this it resembles 

 Ardea minuta. It is very shy, and has a great tenacity 

 of life, so that many when hard hit are lost by the 

 sportsman, and consequently it is very difficult to get 

 perfect specimens for preservation." 



