Page:Cassell's book of birds (IA cassellsbookofbi04breh).pdf/255

 The Society Islanders ornament the head-dresses of the chiefs with the feathers of these birds, climbing the cliffs, where they are congregated during the breeding season, in order to procure them. The eggs are laid on the sand, beneath a sheltering ledge in the lofty cliffs of Ascension Island and other coasts, and in the low islands of the South Pacific. According to Dr. Bennett, they roost and build in lofty trees. Mr. Burton states that the female deposits one egg, and the male bird sits, a fact clearly established, as one was absolutely taken by the hand while sitting.

The CORMORANTS (Haliei) are peculiarly-constructed birds, easily recognisable by the following characters:—Their body is very much elongated, almost cylindrical in shape, and powerfully built. Their neck is very long, slender, or thin; their head small. The beak is of moderate length, and either straight and sharp-pointed, or strongly bent down and hooked at the end. The tarsus is short and compressed at the sides; the toes large. The wings are long, but blunt at their extremity, owing to the shortness of the primaries, of which the third is the longest. The tail, which consists of twelve or fourteen feathers, is of medium size, or moderately long, and scarcely at all arched; so that it looks very oddly put on. The quills of the wings and tail are very hard, with the barbs broad and strongly connected, the shafts being strong but flexible; the feathers of the under side are loose and silky, those of the upper side closely imbricated.

The members of this numerous family are to be met with in all parts of the world, living equally well in the sea or in fresh water. Some species are resident in the northern seas, but the greater number frequent the temperate and torrid zones. Their habitat is very diversified; some species seldom remove far from the sea, where they take their station on some rocky island, others dwell in reedy marshes or in lakes formed by rivers, only casually visiting the sea-coast; or follow the course of rivers very far into the interior, where they remain during the breeding season. The northern species are regular birds of passage, but those in southern climates only wander from place to place.

The Cormorants are peculiarly adapted to an aquatic life; they are the most gifted divers belonging to their order, and are almost equally qualified for any other kind of locomotion. They walk tolerably on level ground, and although their gait is somewhat vacillating, they are strikingly at home amongst the branches of trees. Their flight is much better than their appearance would seem to indicate, although when flying they always look as if they were fatigued. As far as is possible, they spend their time in the water, where they swim and dive with such skill and perseverance as astonishes anyone who watches their exertions.

The name of these birds is indicative of their voracity, which it seems impossible to satisfy; they will eat as much and as long as they can, and immediately attack any other food that may happen to come within their reach. They seem to rest simply for the purpose of again enabling them to eat, and, with the exception of the very short period they employ in pluming their feathers, their whole time is usually employed in eating and sleeping. The expansiveness of their gullet enables them to swallow fishes of considerable size, but these are rapidly digested, and their craving appetite must again be satisfied. In lands occupied by man, their presence is not tolerated, seeing that they do unspeakable damage to fisheries, but in the ocean, where they can gorge ad libitum, without interfering with mankind, they are at least of some service; they devour fishes and convert them into guano. All the birds belonging to this family build their nests in company with others of their race, and sometimes the numbers thus congregated together amount to several thousand pairs. Their nests are placed either on rocky islands, where they build in the clefts and fissures, or upon the ledges of the rocks, or else in inland places upon trees, forty or fifty of them together. When obliged to build their own nests, they construct a rude framework of thick twigs, upon which they