British Sea Birds

by Charles Dixon

CORMORANT.

From the autumn onwards to the following spring, there are few parts of the coast, indeed, where this bird, the Phalacrocorax carbo of ornithologists, may not be seen; whilst even in summer it is sufficiently widely dispersed to merit us classing it as common. It is, however, seldom seen off low-lying coasts, save after the breeding season, or except such individuals as have not yet reached maturity. There is but one other British species with which the Cormorant may be confused, and that is the Shag; but even then the difference in size is sufficiently great for the much larger Cormorant to be readily identified. Very black, very heavy, and very clumsy the Cormorant looks, as he rises in slow cumbersome flight from the sea, or unfolds his big, bronzed-green wings, and flutters into the air from a rock shelf, or sea-girdled pinnacle; but very soon one’s opinion of him undergoes a change, as, when once fairly on his way, he passes swiftly enough over the sea to a distant resting place, or after flying some distance, pitches down into the water. The colours of the Cormorant are not seen to best advantage at a distance. Certainly the prevailing colour is black, but this is richly loricated with green and purple tints, whilst most of the upper plumage of the body is a beautiful bronzy-brown, the feathers being margined with soft velvety-black, shot with green; the throat is white, as are also the sides of the head; whilst the bright yellow gape and bare portions of the throat form a pleasing contrast to the more sombre hues. As the breeding season approaches the Cormorant increases in beauty; large white patches of silky feathers spring out from the thighs, and the dark head and neck become covered by feathery filaments of white. Perhaps the Cormorant is most interesting when engaged searching for food. This bird obtains its food in various ways. Most frequently of all, it swims to and fro, diving with a headlong plunge at intervals; sometimes it swims with its body low in the water, and the head and neck below the surface peering about in quest of fish. Less frequently it takes up its station on a rock, or even on a tree, from which it flies from time to time, Kingfisher-like, to capture a fish near the surface; or occasionally it dives from such a situation, and pursues its finny food far down into the crystal depths. The Cormorant, however, never fishes like the Gannets and the Terns, by a headlong plunge from the sky. This bird may often be met with fishing in fresh-water some distance inland. Waterton records how it used to visit his lake at Walton Hall; but the habits of the bird on sea and shore shall exclusively claim our attention here. After a meal the Cormorant is very fond of resorting to a rock to rest, and to dry its plumage, standing perfectly motionless with its wings uplifted and outspread. Few, if any, birds can excel the Cormorant in diving: it vies with the very fish themselves, and seems as much at home beneath the surface of the water as in the air. The Cormorant when taken young is easily tamed, and from the earliest recorded times it has been trained to capture fish for its owner. To this day the Chinese and Japanese train Cormorants for this purpose. In England this sport was once a regal pleasure, the Master of the Cormorants finding a place in the Royal household. According to Professor Newton, the sport still lingers amongst a few. Willughby asserts that the trained Cormorant was carried hooded until cast off, but nowadays its bearer protects his eyes from a stroke from the bird’s beak, with a wire mask. A strap or a ring is fastened round the Cormorant’s neck, to prevent it swallowing its captures, just as we muzzle a ferret to prevent it lying up. All who have witnessed this novel way of fishing testify to the bird’s marvellous skill in catching fish after fish, until the gular pouch will hold no more, when the Cormorant is taken, and the fish removed. The food of this bird is composed almost entirely of fish. In winter Cormorants become even more gregarious, often associating in large flocks which wander far in quest of food. This bird is not so completely pelagic in its habits as the Auks, the Divers, and the Grebes. It generally retires to the caves and shelves of the cliffs to sleep, whilst stormy weather will drive it shorewards soon, where it will sit and mope on the rocks, or shelter in the quiet creeks, or under the lee of cliffs, as if waiting for the sea to subside, and allow of its labours being renewed.

As the Cormorant returns for years in succession to one particular spot to breed, there can be little doubt that it pairs for life. The birds begin to associate closely in pairs somewhat early in spring; but actual nesting duties do not commence for a little time after that event. In most places the Cormorant breeds in colonies, the size apparently varying according to the amount of accommodation. For the present purpose we need not describe in detail any of the inland nesting places of this species, beyond remarking that the bird often breeds in trees like Rooks, making a huge nest of sticks and twigs, lined with grass. Upon the coast the favourite breeding resorts of the Cormorant are ranges of lofty cliffs, and small low islands and reefs. The nest may thus either be on the ground—as at the Farne Islands, for instance—or on a ledge of the cliffs. When in the former situation it is generally composed of masses of seaweed, stalks of marine plants, and lined with green grass or other herbage. A Cormorant’s nesting place is by no means a pleasant one for persons whose olfactory nerves are sensitive, the smell from the decaying fish, and from the droppings of the birds, that literally whitewash the whole vicinity, being sickening in the extreme. Other sea fowl usually give these colonies a wide birth. The eggs are from three to six in number, of a delicate bluish-green—where the colour can be detected through the abundant coating of lime—small for the size of the bird, and long and oval in shape. When disturbed the sitting Cormorants make little demonstration, but fly out to sea at once. But one brood is reared in the season, and the eggs are deposited during April or May, in the British Islands. The Cormorant is a silent bird: the only note I have ever heard it utter has been a croaking one at the nest.