after long desuetude lias been revived in tliis country by
the well-known falconer, Capt. F. H. Salvin. In ‘ The
Field ’ of tlie 27th of May, 1882, will be found an account
of the breeding of two of his trained birds, “ Iiao-wang,”
the female, aged 19, and the “ Sub-inspector,” aged 8, in
the Zoological Gardens, at the Eegent’s Park, in 1882.
The birds paired in March, building a rough nest of sticks
on a felled tree in the Gull-enclosure, and by the 25th of the
month three eggs had been laid, when both birds took turns
at incubation. On the 22nd of April two young ones were
hatched, and the task of feeding them was undertaken entirely
by the male bird. After he had been fed and retained
the fish about an hour, he mounted the side of the nest,
and as each young bird came out from under the hen, the
male opened his great mouth, and in went the nestling as
far as the outstretched wings would allow, and helped itself
to the now macerated fish in the old one’s crop. At this
time the young made a great noise, and moved the upper
part of their pouches with a rapid fan-like motion, just as
the old birds do when too hot from the sun.
The illustration represents two birds killed at the Isle
of Wight; the bird in front being in the plumage of the
breeding-season; whilst the other is a bird not yet sufficiently
matured to assume the breeding-dress. Some observations
made upon living Cormorants in the Gardens
of the Zoological Society will afford further explanation.
Some white feathers on the side of the head and neck
began to appear on an old bird on the 4th of January, 1832,
and arrived at their perfection by the 26th of February.
They remained in this state till the 2nd of April, when
they began gradually to disappear, and by the 12th of May
were wholly lost, having been fifty-three days arriving at
perfection, thirty-six days stationary, and forty days disappearing
; making together a period of eighteen weeks three
days. These white feathers were new ones, much longer than
the black feathers of the same part, rounded in form, and
in some degree resembling bristles. Some white feathers
began to appear on the thighs of the same bird on the
24th of January, and the patch was completed in five weeks.
These white feathers began to disappear about the 16th of
June, and by the 20th of July were almost entirely gone.
In the wild state the white patches, &c., are assumed by
the middle of February in this country, and much earlier in
the south of Europe. The sexes are alike in plumage,
but the female has the longer crest, and is the brighter
in colour, as well as the larger in size. A young Cormorant
brought to the Gardens in the autumn of 1830, did not go
through any change during the summers of 1831 or 1832.
The adult plumage is not acquired until nearly the end of
the third year.
In an interesting paper in the Journal of the Linnean
Society for 1881, Zoology, p. 455, Dr. J. C. Ewart has
pointed out that the nasal arrangement in the Cormorant,
and to some extent also in the Gannet (.Sula), differs from
that of other birds in several important particulars. There
is a very small external nostril, the passage in the slit-like
aperture being nearly obliterated in the adult; the osseous
canal is scarcely 1^ millimetres in diameter in its narrowest
part; and the nasal chamber is in very free communication
with the mouth. This is supposed to explain the gaping
of the bill often noticed after prolonged flight.
The adult bird during spring, and the early part of
summer, has the bill pale brown, the point horny, hooked, and
sharp ; irides emerald-green ; forehead, crown, nape, and part
of the neck black, mixed with many white liair-like feathers,
the black feathers on the occiput elongated, forming a crest;
base of the upper mandible, and the gular pouch yellow,
the pouch margined with white ; the back and wing-coverts
dark brown, each feather margined with black ; quill-feathers
black; tail, consisting of fourteen feathers—whereas the
Green Cormorant has only twelve—black ; lower part of
the neck all round, with the breast and all the under surface
of the body, a rich velvet-like bluish-black, except a patch
on the thigh, which is white; the legs, toes, and their connecting
membranes black; whole length about three feet;
of the wing fourteen inches and a half.