The great auk, once common on the British coasts, those of Denmark, the east coast of North America, then restricted to those of Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland, has been killed by man, and the same fate has overtaken the Labrador duck, the Phillip Island parrot, Nestor productus, and the large cormorant of FIG.
Among swimming birds the most numerous are the gull (kamome), of which many varieties are found; the cormorant (u)which is trained by the Japanese for fishing purposesand multitudinous flocks of wild-geese (gan) and wild-ducks (kanjo), from the beautiful mandarinduck (oshi-dori), emblem of cunjugal fidelity, to teal (koga,no) and widgeon (hidori-ganto) of several species.
He received Johnson's homage with the most winning affability, and requited it with a few guineas, bestowed doubtless in a very graceful manner, but was by no means desirous to see all his carpets blackened with the London mud, and his soups and wines thrown to right and left over the gowns of fine ladies and the waistcoats of fine gentlemen, by an absent, awkward scholar, who gave strange starts and uttered strange growls, who dressed like a scarecrow and ate like a cormorant.
The Long-tailed cormorant mostly prefers inland waters; slow-flowing rivers lakes swamps and ponds but is also found along coasts.
Pygmy cormorant is highly restricted range species, its total population estimated between 50,000 to 60,000.