CORMORANTS. 
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Cormorants, Darters, and Gannets. 
Family PHA LA CROC ORA CIDAA. 
The cormorants, of which there are some thirty species, are the typical repre¬ 
sentatives of the first family of the order, and are characterised by their elongated 
COMMON CORMORANT. 
but powerful body, the long neck, which may vary considerably in thickness, the 
moderately long and narrow beak, of which the tip is sharply deflected, and by 
their lineal and concealed nostrils. The face and throat are naked, the legs short 
and stout, with the first toe articulated to the inner side of the metatarsus; and 
the claw of the third toe has a serrated inner margin. The wings are of moderate 
length, with the third quill the longest; and the tail has either twelve or fourteen 
feathers remarkable for their extreme stiffness. Cormorants, although far more 
numerous in the warmer regions of the globe than in northern climates, have an 
