File:The birds of America - from drawings made in the United States and their territories (1840) (14748644521).jpg

Identifier: birdsofamericafr06audu (find matches)
Title: The birds of America : from drawings made in the United States and their territories
Year: 1840 (1840s)
Authors: Audubon, John James, 1785-1851 Bowen, John T., ca. 1801-1856?, lithographer
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: New York : Published by J.J. Audubon Philadelphia : J.B. Chevalier
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ry long, and ofmoderate width; coeca small; rectum narrow; cloaca globular. Tracheaconsiderably flattened; bronchi of moderate width. THE COMMON CORMORANT. +Phalacrocorax Carbo, Linn.PLATE CCCCXV Male, Female, and Young. Look at the birds before you, and mark the affectionate glance of themother, as she stands beside her beloved younglings! I wish you couldhave witnessed the actions of such groups as I did while in Labrador.Methinks I still see the high rolling billows of the St. Lawrence breaking infoaming masses against the huge cliffs, on the shelves of which the Cormorantplaces its nest. I lie flat on the edge of the precipice some hundred feetabove the turbulent waters, and now crawling along with all care, I findmyself only a few yards above the spot on which the parent bird and heryoung are fondling each other, quite unconscious of my being near. Howdelighted I am to witness their affectionate gratulations, hear their lisping ^v rs ^ \ \ i 1 s \ \ V i § i .^ X ^ \ -«^ \ \ N \
Text Appearing After Image:
THE COMMON CORMORANT. 413 notes, mark the tremulous motions of their expanded throats, and the curiousvacillations of their heads and necks! The kind mother gently caresses eachalternately with her bill; the little ones draw nearer to her, and, as ifanxious to evince their gratitude, rub their heads against hers. Howpleasing all this is to me! But at this moment the mother accidentallylooks upward, her keen eye has met mine, she utters a croak, spreads hersable wings, and in terror launches into the air, leaving her brood at mymercy. Far and near, above and beneath me, the anxious parent passes andrepasses; her flight is now unnatural, and she seems crippled, for she wouldfain perform those actions in the air, which other birds perform on theground or on the water, in such distressing moments of anxiety for the fateof their beloved young. Her many neighbours, all as suspicious as herself,well understand the meaning of her mode of flight, and one after anothertake to wing, so that the

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