416 PELICAN. 



female. May we not, therefore, conclude that these birds vary 

 much in plumage, either at different seasons or periods of age; that 

 the latter does take place we learn from Colonel Montagu, who 

 mentions having one of the first described, with the striped head and 

 the white patch over the thighs,* brought to him alive; this was 

 perfectly familiar, following any one of the family for the sake of 

 a fish. After the autumn, the period of moulting, the plumage 

 completely changed to black, losing both the streaked neck and 

 white over the thighs; and on a second moulting the year following, 

 the same black plumage was renewed, but the streaked head and 

 white over the thighs never appeared again ; among those with the 

 black plumage, the chin is more or less white ; in some is a portion 

 of white on the breast and belly, in others the belly is wholly white ; 

 and in one in the Leverian Collection, the hindhead and nape had 

 a narrow series of long feathers serving as a crest. We may hence 

 probably conclude, that the two, figured by Mr. Bewick, f form but 

 one species, and are Varieties only ; for we do not yet learn whether 

 the younger birds have invariably the striped heads. 



These birds are sufficiently common in England, and breed on 

 most of our rocky coasts, generally on the highest, and most inacces- 

 sible cliffs; sometimes in concert with the shags; but the latter are 

 by far the most numerous. The nest is composed of a mixture of sticks 

 and sea weed ; the eggs generally three in number, dusky, or greenish 

 white, about three inches in length, and weighing about two ounces. 

 In the winter often found at some distance from the sea. In the year 

 1750, one of these perched upon the castle at Carlisle, and soon 

 afterwards removed to the Cathedral, where it was shot at upwards 

 of twenty times without effect, at last a person got upon the Cathe- 

 dral, fired at, and killed it; in another instance, a flock of fifteen 



* We learn from the Orn. Diet, that the Corvorant is plentiful on the Coast of Devon- 

 shire and Cornwall, but those with streaked heads very rare ; this latter is well represented 

 in Hist, des Ois. viii. pi. 26. PI. enl. 927. and Beivick's Birds, ii. pi. in p. 388. 



-f- Compare Bewick, ii. pi. p. 381. 



