270 THE CRESTED CORMORANT. 
just described, by its smaller size and uniformity of colour, 
which is mostly of a rich dark green, here and there shaded 
with black, or clouded with dusky grey. Yarrell says : — 
In the localities visited, the habits of the Small or Grey Cor- 
morant, as compared with those of the larger bird, present but few 
points of ditFerence. The Shag, it is said, never quits the salt water 
to follow the course of a river, nor does it settle on trees like the 
Cormorant. They generally build low down on the rocks, nearer 
the water than the Cormorants, but in companies, like them ; and 
Montagu says he has seen thirty nests close together on a small 
rock. The nest is formed of seaweed ; the eggs, three or four in 
number, in shape and colour like those of its generic companion. 
These birds live on fish, in pursuit of which they exhibit all the skill 
of the Cormorant, and have a similar serrated claw ; but as neither 
of them are observed to attempt to catch or to hold fish with their 
feet, it would seem that this is not to enable them to catch slippery 
prey. It would rather appear that the pectinated claw was used to 
dress and arrange the plumage. 
The cry of the Cormorant is a low hoarse croak, seldom 
heard. It is said sometimes to emit a shrill scream, which 
portends stormy weather ; so Horne, in his play of Gregory 
VIL', says:— 
The news outsped 
The proof, as doth a screaming Cormorant 
The coming storm. 
Perhaps, however, this may have referred to the common 
habit of most birds which fly landward uttering their shriU 
cries of fear at the approach of a tempest. 
And now we are among the poets, let us quote a passage 
or two from them, descriptive of the habits of this bird. 
Montgomery, in his * Pelican Island/ describes how — 
Through yielding water, as through limpid air, 
The Cormorant, death's living arrow, flew; 
Nor ever miss'd a stroke, or dealt a second, 
So true the infalHble destroyer's aim. 
And we are told, by those who have watched the bird fishing, 
that it seldom makes a plunge in vain. 
Although a harmless bird, very attentive to its young, 
