THE CORMORANT
Phalacrocorax carbo (Linnæus)
With the Cormorant we come to quite another order of birds in which the feet, including the hind toe, are completely webbed. Their food consists entirely of fish, which they obtain by diving and of which they consume an immense quantity.
The Cormorant is abundant round all our shores and nests in colonies on rocky cliffs.
Its breeding places are very numerous and may be said to occur pretty generally wherever suitable localities are to be found. The nest is an untidy accumulation of seaweed, and the eggs, usually five in number, are pale blue in colour, but are thickly covered with a white chalky encrustation.
The young are blind at first and covered with blackish down. They feed on half-digested food, which they procure by inserting their head and neck into the parents’ crop. It is rather a sedentary bird, spending much of its time on rocks just above high-water mark; in diving it moves almost entirely by means of its feet, the wings being kept closely folded to its side. When searching for food it places its head under water, and on sighting a fish dives under with scarcely a ripple; on being captured the victim is brought to the surface and swallowed head first, and the search for another is recommenced. Having satisfied his hunger he mounts a rock and stands there erect, drying himself in the wind with outstretched wings, for in spite of their diving habits the feathers of these birds have very little power of resisting water, and after a prolonged immersion become quite saturated. It flies well and strongly with the head and neck outstretched in front and looks not unlike a Duck. In some places it nests inland near large lakes, and in such localities the nest is placed on trees.
The adult is of a deep glossy greenish black, which becomes more bronze in tint on the mantle. Many of the feathers on the head and neck are white, and there is a white patch on the thighs which is assumed during the winter and lost in May. The young are brownish and lack the gloss of the old birds; the under parts are whitish. They become adult in about three years. Length 36 in.; wing 14 in.
SHAG
Phalacrocorax graculus
Adult in breeding dress. Young on sea
THE SHAG
Phalacrocorax graculus, Linnæus
The Shag is widely distributed round our coasts, especially those rocky portions abounding in caves, on the ledges of which it breeds. It is a smaller and more local species than the last, and is never found breeding inland and rarely in colonies. In all other ways it is a counterpart of its larger congener, with which it is often confounded by local fishermen.