242 
PELECANIM. 
still higher cliffs. The most favourable opportunity I have had of 
observing it is alluded to in a general description of the birds of 
Horn Head, under Puffin (p. 225). The gamekeeper there stated 
that he had seen salmon of from two to five pounds weight in 
their nests; but this must be over-estimated. They are con- 
sidered so destructive to this valuable fish, that a reward of four- 
pence is paid to him for the head of every cormorant of this 
species he can procure. In a note to the Shag in M'SkimmiiPs 
* Carrickfergus/ it is added : — “ Rewards were formerly paid at 
assize for destroying these birds ; in the records of the county 
Antrim; in 1729; mention is made of a person called Jemfrey, in 
Island Magee; who had killed ninety-six cormorants in one sea- 
son. ^ We cannot tell from this whether rewards were offered for 
only one, or for both species. 
Lieut. Reynolds informed US; in 1834; that the cormorant 
which is “all black” breeds on the Bills Rock; off Achil. 
At Arranmore; off Galway Bay, Mr. Ball and I, on the 8th 
of July, 1834; saw a colony of cormorants at their breeding-sta- 
tions ; — a tabular mass of limestone high above the sea, and from 
the summit of which a lofty range of precipice arose. The follow- 
ing day we saw twenty-two of them swimming together in a close 
flock; between the two smaller islands. Not one of the birds 
perched on the rock — (and they were admirably seen through a 
telescope) — exhibited the least white on the head or thigh; nor any 
crest ; nor did those already noticed as seen about the same time 
in the vicinity of the fresh- water lakes. Purther; with respect to 
plumage ; one, which flew within twenty yards of me; at Port 
Lough; was wholly black; as were two which passed near to me 
at Horn Head ; and not one, out of the many birds in their nest- 
ing-place there, exhibited the least white, or peculiar plumage of 
the f crested corvorant 9 of Bewick, considered by authors as their 
breeding attire. It would thus seem that these birds throw off 
that plumage earlier here, or breed at a later period than they do 
in other localities, and at the same time make known the sin- 
gular fact, that the cormorant does not, like most other birds, 
retain its full dress during the breeding season. I have not seen 
