76 



COMMON CORMORANT. 



extremely awkward in their movements, as their legs 

 are placed so far backwards on their body as to cause 

 them to maintain a nearly vertical position, some- 

 what similar to that of the birds of the preceding 

 family, with which they are also connected by their 

 method of swimming ; during which operation the 

 head and part of the neck alone remain out of the 

 water. They are excessively voracious, and subsist 

 chiefly upon fresh-water fishes, particularly eels. In 

 common with the Pelicans, they perch on trees : their 

 nests are generally placed on the ground or the ledges 

 of rocks, and are composed of rushes, fuci, &c. roughly 

 interwoven. They fly with rapidity. Their tail is 

 rather long and furnished with strong feathers, whose 

 shafts are elastic, and help to support their body while 



walking. 



COMMON CORMORANT. 

 (Phalacrocorax Carbo.) 



1 



Vn.Jusco-nigery dorso iiigro undulato, collo antice rostroque apice 

 albo variegato, rectricibus quatuordecim. 



Brown-black Cormorant with the back waved with black, the fore 

 part of the neck and tip of the beak variegated with white, tail- 

 feathers fourteen. ' 



Pelecanus Carbo. Linn. Syst. Nat, I. 216. Gmel. Syst. Nat. I. 

 573. Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 886. 



Corvus aquaticus. Raiiy Syn. 122. A. 



Phalacrocorax. Briss. Orn. 6. .511. ^9/. 45. 



Le Cormoran. Buff. Hist. Nat. Ois. 8. 310.^/. 26. Buff. PL 

 Enl 927. Cuv. Reg. Anim. 1 . 524. 



