THE COMMON CORMORANT. 
131 
at the base flesh-coloured ; the eyes bluish-grey. The general colour of their 
skin is dull livid; the feet purplish-dusky, the webs yellowish-brown. 
The following is a description of the smaller individual represented in the 
plate, and which was about two weeks old. The length is twelve inches and 
a half; the colour dull livid, the a'bdomen and breast lighter, the forehead, 
gular sac, and bases of the mandibles, flesh-colour, tinged with yellow, as is 
the mouth. The head and upper part of the neck are bare, as well as the 
lower surface of the wings. Over the rest of the body are small down tufts 
rising in regular series, excepting along an impressed line extending from the 
anterior part of the thorax to the anus. The apertures of the ears are round, 
extremely small, being only half a twelfth in diameter ; the eyes very small, 
the iris grey. The aperture of the posterior nares is linear-lanceolate, 
smooth on the edges, half an inch long. A probe introduced into it passes 
readily out by the nostril, which is basal, linear, small, two-twelfths long, 
placed at the commencement of the long groove which separates the sides 
from the ridge of the mandible, and covered above by the skin, so as to 
be not readily observed, although it is easily dilatable. Each internal nostril 
is oblique, much wider below, and has on its inner side a transverse soft 
ridge, which divides it into two cavities, the posterior deep and funnel- 
shaped, passing backwards and upwards, the anterior becoming narrower 
towards the external aperture. The tongue is extremely small, four-twelfths 
long, elliptical, with a central ridge. The oesophagus is extremely dilatable, 
and as far as the middle of the neck is of larger diameter than below, but it 
again dilates as it enters the stomach. Its length is five inches and a half. 
The inner coat is smooth in its dilated part, but in the rest is raised into 
numerous longitudinal ridges or folds, which at the lower part are undulated. 
The stomach is oblong, four and a half inches long, quite membranous, and 
without apparent central tendons. The gastric glands are disposed so as to 
occupy two spaces, the one three and a half inches by two, the other a little 
smaller. The inner coat is soft and without wrinkles. The intestine is five 
feet two inches long, at its upper part three-twelfths in diameter, gradually 
diminishing to one-twelfth. At the distance of two inches from the anus are 
two coeca, three-twelfths long, one-twelfth in diameter, and rounded. The 
contents of the stomach were fragments of fish, with numerous bones, and a 
pebble about half an inch in diameter. The heart triangular, much flattened. 
The liver of two very unequal lobes, the right one two inches and a half 
long, the other one and a half. The specimen, which I had preserved in 
spirits, was examined in my presence by my friend Mr. Macgillivray. 
Whether the fact of the anterior aperture of the organ of smell being open in 
the young Cormorant has been observed by any other person than myself, I 
know not; but it would seem that the general opinion is, that Cormorants 
