The Cormorant

We have always thought a cormorant was a cormorant. So when starting to make this page, we looked it up
in our Encydlopedia. This is what it said: 'Cormorant a type of seabird. See pelican (!!!)'

We don't have Pelicans in Norway, and neither there are any on Iceland as far as we know.
But who said we couldn't learn more?

Looking up under Pelican we fould the following info:
'Cormorant genus of diving sea birds Phalacrocorax family Phalacrocoracideae.
The common cormorant P carbo is black, glossed with bronze; it feed voraciously,
and in the East is trained to fish for its owner, a cord round the neck preventing it
swallowing the catch. The very similar shag P graculus is glossed with green.


The cormorant birds are then sent out into the water to catch the fish. Each bird is on a leash,
and it requires particular skill by the Usho to prevent the leashes from becoming entangled
as the birds dive repeatedly for their catch. The leash is attached to a small metal ring that is
attached around the base of the cormorant's neck.
© Yamasa Institute

To the same kind of birds, Pelecaniformes, are also the common pelican, of course,
the frigate bird, the gannet and the solan goose, Morus bassana. The latter
is said to be able to dive vertically, using the same 'variable geometry' of wing employed
by the Tornado aircraft, whatever that is....'
Above text from Hutchinson Factfinder, Concise Encyclopedia, 1986