236 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



and Mount Carmel), and southern North Carolina (near Wilming- 

 ton). Southern limits of South American breeding- range. not well 

 defined, but the species ranges south to southern Brazil, Paraguay, 

 and northern Argentina, and it probably breeds throughout most of 

 its range. Said to breed on the coast of Peru. 



Winter range. — Includes most of the breeding range, at least north 

 to central Arkansas (Newport), central Alabama (Greensboro), and 

 probably southern Georgia. 



Sjn'ing imgration. — Migrates into South Carolina in March 

 (earliest, March 13, usually common by March 21). 



Fall migraf/on. — Latest dates : Illinois, Cairo, August 31 ; South 

 Carolina, Otranto, August 31. 



Casual records. — Has wandered as far west and north as California 

 (Imperhil County, February 9, 1913), Wisconsin (Kelley Brook, 

 spring, 1889), and Ohio (Lowell, November, 1885). 



Egg dates. — Florida : Fifty- four records, February 15 to June 16 ; 

 twenty-seven records, March 16 to April 29. Louisiana and Texas : 

 Eight records, April 14 to June 2 ; four records, April 21 to May 27, 



Family PHALACROCORACIDAE, Cormorants. 



PHALACROCORAX CARBO (Linnaeus). 



CORMORANT. 



HABITS. 



Conirihuted by (Jharlea Wendell Townscnd. 



On the northern Atlantic seaboard the term shag is used for both 

 this and the double-crested species, and the two are not distinguished 

 by the ordinary observer. Although not as common here as the 

 double-crested bird, it has an almost world-wide distribution, and 

 breeds in the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere from Nova 

 Scotia, Labrador, and Greenland to the British Isles and Kamchatka, 

 and winters as far south as Long Island, southern Africa, Australia, 

 and New Zealand. The bird is said to be very intelligent, easily 

 domesticated, and to become attached to its masters. In the time 

 of Charles the First, fishing with trained cormorants was a regular 

 sport in England, and this species was employed. Rings around 

 the neck, as in China at the present day, were used to prevent swal- 

 lowing the prey, although in well-trained birds this was unnecessary. 



Although the cormorant does not now breed south of Nova Sco- 

 tia, in the time of Audubon it nested at Grand Manan. Nuttall 

 (1834) says, "They breed, and are seen in the vicinity of Boston on 

 bare and rocky islands, nearly throughout the year." Earlier still, 

 when the first settlers came to this country, thej^ were abundant along 



