CORMORANT. 
471 
NA TA TORES. 
PELICANIDjE. 
CORMORANT. 
P tfALACROCORAX CARBO. 
PLATE CXXX. FIQ. II. 
The Cormorants sometimes breed upon the ledges 
of precipices, but choose in preference those rocks which, 
standing isolated, are surrounded by the sea, upon the 
tops of which they make their nests. On the Fern 
Islands, where about forty or fifty pairs breed, they oc¬ 
cupy a low flat island, slightly elevated above the water, 
and confine themselves to one particular and very limited 
part of it. One of the breeding-places of these birds 
affords a very interesting, and, at the same time, a ludi¬ 
crous sight, and, were Cruikshank an ornithologist, would 
furnish him with some good sketches. Should you ap¬ 
proach the Cormorant Island to leeward, you will, long 
ere you reach it, have notice of its neighbourhood by the 
strong nauseous smell which taints the passing breeze. 
At first sight, the island, which is whitened with the dung 
of the birds, resembles the limed top of a wall, in which 
are stuck pieces of broken glass; when, on a nearer ap¬ 
proach, the lank, upright figures of the birds become 
visible, they have the appearance of an assemblage of 
so many long-necked French wine-bottles. Before you 
arrive within gunshot of their nests, after raising their 
long necks to their utmost perpendicular stretch, looking 
