LIFE HISTOEIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 253 



birds. One hundred and twenty-one homes of the cormorants were counted, 

 twentj'-eight trees in all being used for their accommodation. 



Alligators gather about the colony, probably to feed, in part, upon the frag- 

 ments of food which fall from the nests above. Six were counted at one time 

 within easy rifle range of the boat. One of the young, while climbing along 

 a slender limb, lost its balance and fell with a splash into the water. It im- 

 mediately dived, and, coming to the surface about twenty feet away, began 

 swimming up the lake with long and rapid strokes. By the time I had descended 

 to the boat with my cameras the bird was fully fifty yards away. To our 

 horror, a large alligator had given chase, and was rapidly approaching the 

 swimmer. We immediately started in pursuit, and, after an exciting chase, 

 rescued the young cormorant ; but not until the alligator had made two \in- 

 successful snaps at his intended victim, which escaped only by diving with 

 marvelous quickness just at the proper instant. 



Mr. C. J. Pennock (1889) described a somewhat similar colony, 

 nesting in large cypress trees in an inland pond, near St. Marks, 

 Florida. His account of the immense size of the trees chosen and 

 the unusual height of the nests is well worth quoting: 



The nests were placed for the most part on the horizontal limbs well out 

 from the body of the tree, some, however, well up in the tops of the trees. 

 Eight trees were occupied, and ninety-seven nests were counted. The largest 

 tree was at least six feet in diameter at a height of eight feet from the ground, 

 and carried its size in good proportion well up to the lower limbs, which we 

 estimated to be over sixty feet from the ground. This tree contained twenty- 

 three nests, but none of the others had over sixteen nests. The lowest nest 

 was over fifty feet from the ground, the majority were over sixty feet high, 

 and on the large tree referred to several nests must have been one hundred 

 feet high. This tree, by the way, was not molested by our party ; the com- 

 bined girth of the strap and a pair of long arms not being sufficient to com- 

 pass it by fully six feet. 



I think the above two instances are rather unusual, although illus- 

 trating the nesting habits of the Florida cormorant in inland lakes, 

 for this cormorant evidently prefers to frequent the shores, bays, 

 estuaries, inlets, and mouths of rivers, where it is more frequently 

 found nesting in low red mangrove trees or bushes on islands. On 

 my first visit to Cuthbert Lake, near Cape Sable in southern Florida, 

 we found, on May 1, 1903, a colony of about 600 Florida cormorants 

 nesting on a small mangrove island with large numbers of Louisiana 

 and little blue herons, American egrets, white ibises, roseate spoon- 

 bills, and water-turkeys. The cormorants' nests were on the extreme 

 outer edge of the red mangroves which grew well out into the water 

 of the lake. The nests were closely bunched in compact colonies on 

 the very tops of the trees or bushes, from 6 to 10 feet above the 

 water, which was from 2 to 3 feet deep at this point. They were 

 well made of sticks, compactly interwoven, and were lined with 

 green leaves, but, like all cormorants' nests, they were very filthy; 

 the nests and the trunks, branches, and leaves of the trees were 

 completely whitewashed with excrement, which peeled off in large 



