all four toes united together by membranes ; claw of the middle toe serrated on
the inner edge. Wings of moderate length, the third quill-feather the longest.
Tail-feathers stiff and rigid.
The Great Cormorant, or Black Cormorant as it is
sometimes called, to distinguish it from the Green Cormorant
or Shag, next to be described, is found in considerable
numbers on most of the rocky parts all round the coast.
In the Channel Islands, and, as a rule, along the south
coast of England, and in Wales, it is less abundant as a
breeding species than the Shag, but on the other hand it
is frequently found nesting in inland situations, which the
Shag is never known to do. On the eastern side of our
island it used formerly to nest on the trees at Reedham, in
Norfolk, in the time of Sir Thomas Browne, who states that
from there King Charles I. was wont to be supplied ; and,
according to the late Rev. Richard Lubbock and Mr. Stevenson,
it nested within a comparatively recent period in the
trees around the decoy at Fritton, in Suffolk. From its
station on the Flamborough cliffs it had been driven by
persecution, but Mr. W. E. Clarke says that, owing to the
Sea-birds’ Preservation Act, a few birds have returned to
their former haunts. On the Fame Islands there is a large
colony ; and there are numerous breeding-places along the
coast of Scotland. In the Shetlands it is less common than
the Shag, which also as a rule outnumbers it on the west
coast of Scotland and in the Hebrides; but in Ayrshire and
Wigtonshire the Cormorant is in the majority, breeding on
the sea-cliffs and also on the inland lochs. In Wales, in
addition to many places on the coast, there is a celebrated
breeding-liaunt in Merionethshire, in the valley which runs
up from Towyn to Cader Idris, on a bold crag about 400 feet
in height, known as Craig y dern, i.e., the Bird-rock.
In Ireland the Cormorant is of ordinary occurrence,
breeding on many parts of the coast and also inland.
Thompson states that upon an island in the demesne of the
Earl of Shannon, Castle Martyr, County Cork, more than
eighty Cormorants’ nests were counted in one season, on
Scotch fir-trees not under 60 feet in height, in which they
hatched their young ; and Mr. J. J. Folliott Darling gives an
account (Zool. 1882, p. 68) of a colony of seventy or eighty
pairs which he found breeding on an island in Lough Atty-
mas, about eleven miles from the sea, on some bushes which
had previously been occupied by a colony of Herons until
driven off by the Cormorants.
This species is common in the Faeroes; and tolerably
abundant in Iceland; also in Greenland up to about 70° N.
lat. Its distribution extends over the whole of Europe,
North Africa, Egypt, the greater part of Asia, and Malaysia.
In Australia and New Zealand we find a doubtfully distinct
form, P. novce-hollandice; and in South Africa our bird
appears to be represented by P. luciclus, although there are
statements that P. carlo has occurred there. In North
America the Cormorant is found on the Atlantic side from
Hudson Bay and Labrador in summer, to New Jersey in
winter, but on the Pacific side its presence has not yet been
recorded; otherwise this species would be almost cosmopolitan
in its range.
In this country, Cormorants, when at their breeding-
stations, usually prefer the higher parts of rocks or cliffs,
and many birds congregate harmoniously together. They
make a large nest, composed of sticks, with a mass of seaweed
and long coarse grass ; laying from three to five, and
sometimes six eggs, small for the size of the bird, oblong,
similar in shape at both ends, rough in texture, of a chalky
white colour covering a pale blue ; average measurements,
2‘75 by P6 in. Mr. Booth says that at times their nests are
placed on low islands, and are only elevated a few feet above
high-water mark. Amongst the sticks and litter which the
Cormorants use for building, he has seen children’s whips
and spades, a gentleman’s light cane, and part of a handle
of a parasol (Zool. 1877, p. 389). Mention has already
been made of the nesting of this species on trees, and on
the Continent, and in India such situations are frequently
occupied. Mr. S. B. Doig describes one in a swamp in the
Eastern Narra district where the nests are all placed on
trees only a fewT feet above the water, and were large plat-
VOL. IV. u