RANT.
Bill middle-sized, or long, straight, compressed, upper mandible much ineurvecl at the tip, the lower compress ed, base of the bill involved in a small membrane which reaches to the throat ; face and throat naked; nostrils ba sal, linear, and concealed; legs strong, short, situated far behind, all the toes included in a web, the middle claw serrated; wings moderate. This genus has been lately detached from Pelecanus and Solo. The birds which compose it are very expert divers, and swim with ease tinder water ; and though far from agile or nimble on land, they walk better than the .1/crgi yet almost in an erect attitude, and using their long and elastic tail as a point of support. They feed much on river fish. especially eels, and they are more addicted than the pelican to perch on trees. Their moulting is partially double in the course of the year.
C cormoranus, Meyer, Tern. Pelecanus carbo, Lin. &c. Cormorant, or, more correctly, Cormorant. Prov. Great Black, Green, or Crested C,r-vorant. Cole Great Scarf, Scarf, Broigie, or .Vorie. Length uf the bill two inches three lines longer than the head; the tail com posed of fourteen feathers. Size of a goose, but more slender ; weighs from five to seven pounds; length about thirty inches, and extent of wing from four to four and a half feet.
This species inhabits Europe, Asia, and America. It never quits the Gulf of Bothnia till that inlet is congealed, and then it may be seen on trees and houses in Sweden, resting on its passage to the ocean. On the Dutch coast, where it arrives in Alarch, it is very numerous ; nor is it uncommon on many of our own shores, building its nest uf sticks, sea-ware, and grass, on the highest parts of cliffs that impend over the sea, and laying three or more green eggs about the size of those of a goose In the parish of North 1\levan, in Shetland, are two very high inaccessible rocky pillars, on which the corvorant breeds \Vhat is very extraordinary," observes Mr. Laing, " the rock pos
sessed by these birds one year is deserted the next, and returned to again after being a year unpossessed This singular practice has been carried on during the memory II of man." In winter these birds disperse along the shores, and visit the fresh waters, where they commit great de predations among the fish. They are remarkably vora cious, have a very quick digestion, and, though naturally extremely shy and wary, are heavy and sluggish, and easily taken when glutted with food The smell of the corvorant when alive is more rank and offensive than that of any other bird ; and its flesh is so disgusting that even the Greenlanders will hardly taste it. In Orkney, how ever, the young are sometimes regarded as delicacies, es pecially if kept under ground for twenty-four hours, so as to make them tender, and deprive them of their fishy taste. In this state they are also said to furnish soup lit tle inferior to that made with hare It is not uncommon to see about a score of these birds together, on the rocks of the sea-shore, with expanded wings, drying themselves in the wind. In this attitude they sometimes remain for nearly an hour, without once closing their wings; and as soon as the latter are sufficiently dry to enable the feathers to imbibe the oil, they press that liquor from its recepta cle on the rump, and dress the feathers with it, at the par ticular moment when it can be most advantageously spread on them. Corvorants were formerly occasionally trained in this country to catching fish for the table. For this purpose they were kept with great care in the house, and when taken out for fishing, they had a leathern thong tied round their neck, to prevent them from swallowing their - prey. Whitlock tells us, that he had a cast of them, man . ned like hawks, which would come to hand. He took much pleasure in them, and relates, that the best he had . was one presented to him by Mr. Wood, Master of the Corvorants to Charles I.