. The royal natural history. the ledges of the clitts sloping down to the sea. Theymake a neat, compact, round nest, raised about a foot from the ground, andcomposed of mud, with a lining of grass. The number of eggs in this place wasonlv two to three in a nest. Ho also says that the young birds, with their coatof black down, were exceedingly ugly; and that when there are three in the nestnearly full-fledged they form an absurd sight, since the nest is then not bigenough to hold more tlian one properly, so the greater part of the bodies of thethree young projects out; and then, to crown the ab
. The royal natural history. the ledges of the clitts sloping down to the sea. Theymake a neat, compact, round nest, raised about a foot from the ground, andcomposed of mud, with a lining of grass. The number of eggs in this place wasonlv two to three in a nest. Ho also says that the young birds, with their coatof black down, were exceedingly ugly; and that when there are three in the nestnearly full-fledged they form an absurd sight, since the nest is then not bigenough to hold more tlian one properly, so the greater part of the bodies of thethree young projects out; and then, to crown the absurdity, the mother comes andsits on the top of these three young as big as liersolf. The young feed themselvesl)y poking their heads far down into their parents throats, and extracting thehalf-digested fish from their stomachs. Althougli often roosting on rocks, in someplaces cormorants spend the night in trees: and on some parts of the Nile inEgypt they congregate at night by hundreds in the palm-trees fringing its CORMORANTS FEEDING THEIR YOUNG. (From Sclater, Iroc. Zuul. Soc, 1882.) 28o STEGANOPODOUS BIRDS. In China and Japan cormorants have been trained to fish for their mastersfrom time immemorial, and early in the seventeenth century this practice wasintroduced into Europe as a sport, which was followed both in Holland, France,and England. In the East the cormorants are taught to fish either from the bankor from a raft, and although young or imperfectly trained birds wear a collar, towhich a cord may be attached, to prevent them swallowing their prey, in manycases the fully trained l:)irds are allowed to fish without any kind of they receive permission to forage for themselves, they invariably bring alltheir captures to their owner; and it is said that when the bird has seized a fishtoo large for it to carry unaided, another immediately comes to its assistance. Incaptivity cormorants are readily tamed, and exhibit considerable intelligence andattac
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