128 
THE COMMON CORMORANT. 
fish thrown to them from the distance of several yards, by a sudden and 
precise movement of the neck and head, as seldom to miss one in a dozen. 
The courtship of this species is so similar to that of the Florida Cormorant, 
that I consider it unnecessary to describe it, as I should merely repeat what 
is said with respect to that species. I have seen them act in the same 
manner, both on the shelves on which the nests were placed, and on the 
water. They begin to lay about the first of June, on the islands near the 
Bay of Fundy, about a fortnight later in Labrador ; and it is my opinion 
that the younger birds spend their breeding season in the former places. 
The Common Cormorant walks in a waddling and awkward manner, but 
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at a good pace, and leaps from one stone to another, assisting itself with its 
wings, and occasionally with the tail, which acts as a kind of spring. I am 
unable to say at what age this species attains the full dress of the love season, 
but it cannot be in less than three years, as some which I have known to 
have been kept in a state of constant captivity, did not shew the white patch 
on the thigh, nor the slender white feathers around the head and part of the 
neck, until the middle of May, in the fifth year. That the younger birds of 
this and other Cormorants, breed before they have acquired the full beauty 
of their plumage, is a fact which I have had many opportunities of ascertain- 
ing. The Common Cormorant is found breeding, both near the entrance of 
the Bay of Fundy, and along the coast of Labrador, in flocks of*fifty or more 
pairs, of which not an individual shews any white unless on the sides of the 
head, and along the throat, but much duller on these parts than even in the 
female represented in the plate, which was yet what may be termed an 
immature bird. No differences appear in the garb of the sexes, in their 
different states of plumage, and perfect specimens of both are equally 
beautiful in the breeding season, being then similar to the male of which I 
have endeavoured to present a good portrait. I have observed a greater 
difference in size between individuals of this species, and those of any other. 
The white markings observed, on the old birds of this species, during the 
period of courtship, incubation, and rearing of the young until they are able 
to fly, and which extends to two months and a half, begin to disappear from 
the moment incubation has fairly begun, and at the time when the young 
leave the nest scarcely any remain, unless, on the sides of the head. In 
autumn and winter the feathers of the head are similar to those of the neck, 
and the plumage in general has lost much of its vernal and asstival beauty. 
The entire crest also falls off in autumn. The white markings and the crest 
are renewed in the wild state about the end of February ; but in birds kept 
in domestication rarely before May. The young do not exhibit the crest 
until the second spring, at which period, being yet destitute of white 
