60 
PELICANIDA'. 
for several minutes in order to give the fish time to gorge 
the bait; when he at last secured his fish he observed, 
on examining the bait (a bleak) that the head, which had 
been received into the stomach of the jack, was in a half- 
digested state, while the tail still remained perfect: nor 
was this the only time, my friend informed me, that he 
had observed the same thing respecting the rapid diges¬ 
tibility of fish. This circumstance perfectly agrees with 
our own experience on the subject; the bait, under such 
circumstances, being not merely torn or disfigured, but 
actually half-digested in the course of a few minutes. 
The localities in which Cormorants breed are very various 
in character. 
In northern countries the nests, composed of sticks and 
stalks of rushes or grasses, are placed on the shelves of 
rocks more than two hundred feet above the surface of the 
water; in Holland, where rocks are not known, lofty trees, 
or beds of rushes are chosen ; and in southern countries, 
forest trees. 
The female lays three or four eggs of smaller size than 
one would expect, considering the dimensions of the bird; 
the colour is bluish-green, without polish, and very chalky. 
As soon as the young are able to fly, they are led to the 
water by their parents, where they very soon take care of 
themselves; but before the second year they are not of 
age to pair. 
The adult male bird measures three feet in length. 
The wing fourteen inches; the beak, from the forehead, 
two inches ten lines. 
The female is about three inches less in length, and 
its other dimensions are in proportion. 
In the spring the plumage of the male has the entire upper 
part of the head, the nape, and upper part of the neck. 
