THERE is something odd about the cormorant—a hint of the reptilian, some echo of the prehistoric. It seems more bat than a bird. There is a certain elegance to the tall heron that wades the same waters, yet nothing remotely chic about the cormorant. It has enormous feet, short legs, and a ludicrous paddling walk (a cormorant makes a penguin look like Naomi Campbell). With a telescopic neck, leathery yellow skin, and a call that is an oddly porcine croak, this bird is unlikely ever to inspire romantic poetry. It looks like a broken and discarded umbrella.
Phalacrocorax carbo's ungainly appearance is deceptive. It is the most efficient and effective aquatic predator in the avian kingdom, capable of catching more than 10 times as many fish per hour than the average gull. This strange bird has been around for close to 30,000 years. It is supremely adaptable, present in a variety of forms on every continent, and thrives in all environments, including the frozen Arctic.
Even the cormorant's apparent deficiencies are strengths. It has underdeveloped oil glands and cannot waterproof its feathers—yet what appears to be a design fault actually helps it to dive deeper. It can plunge to depths of some 150ft and hold its breath for well over a minute when pursuing its prey. After a couple of dives, the feathers are soaked and the cormorant is forced to stand, wings outstretched, drying itself. It might make it vulnerable to attack, but there's something about the cormorant that deters even the hungriest predator.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin April 20, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin April 20, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
