58 
PELICAN1D*E. 
This species can hardly be considered to migrate, but 
wanders from place to place where its food is more abun¬ 
dant at intervals. 
No locality can be pointed out, as being preferred 
above another by the Cormorant, and it differs in this 
respect from most other birds; in the most northern coun¬ 
tries it is found near the sea, and about the rocky parts, 
where trees and vegetation are almost unknown, as well 
as the habitations of man ; and in the south it frequents, 
apparently, the wooded parts and even the direct neigh¬ 
bourhood of buildings, and also fresh-water lakes, and 
rivers that are partly filled with rushes and flags, provided 
always there is deep water and plenty of fish. 
The choice in its roosting place differs as much in the 
north and south as its locality, inasmuch as it invariably 
mounts the highest cliffs in the north and the highest 
trees in the south, or it chooses posts, roofs of buildings, 
or logs that float on the water. 
On shore the Cormorant is a helpless and dull bird ; 
on the wing slow, but on the water very active and skil¬ 
ful. 
In our plate we have represented the bird in its usual 
position, sitting on the shelf of a rock ; but when it sits 
on the branch of a tree, it is enabled, by the form of its 
feet, to grasp it with perfect security, in which it differs 
greatly from most of its neighbours among sea-birds. 
^Vhen this bird is engaged in fishing, it frequently 
swims with its head beneath the surface of the water, in 
order, most probably, to overcome the difficulty, caused 
by the ripple on the surface, of seeing its prey ; and from 
time to time it dives under to catch the fish, which it 
can pursue for more than sixty or seventy yards under 
water before it is obliged to come up for air. 
