LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS, 255 



Andros Island, and probably others) ; and on the Isle of Pines. Has 

 been recorded as breeding in southern Illinois and Ohio, bvit these 

 birds are now considered referable to aurifus, though perhaps they 

 may be intermediate. 



Winter range. — Practically resident throughout its breeding range. 

 Winter range includes most of the Bahamas, the Greater and Lesser 

 Antilles, and the coasts of Texas, Honduras, and Yucatan. With- 

 draws from the Carolinas in winter. 



Egg dates. — Florida; thirty-six records, March 5 to June 21; 

 eighteen records, April 3 to May 14. 



PHALACROCORAX AURITUS CINCINATUS (Brandt). 

 WHITE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 



HABITS. 



The northwestern race of the double-crested cormorant is restricted 

 in the breeding season to the northwest coast region from southern 

 Alaska to Oregon. Reported records of its breeding in the interior 

 are probably erroneous and refer to the eastern subspecies, or to the 

 Farallon cormorant ; such errors may have arisen from the fact that 

 in high nuptial plumage a few white feathers are occasionally found 

 in the crests of the eastern bird. All of the subspecies of Fhalacro- 

 corax auritus habitually shed their crests during the season of incu- 

 bation, the long curling plumes serving merely as courtship and nup- 

 tial adornments. The species can always be distinguished, however, 

 from the other Pacific coast species by the conspicuous j-ellow gular 

 sac. 



Nesting. — The best known breeding resorts of the white-crested 

 cormorant are in the great sea-bird reservations off the coasts of 

 Washington and Oregon, which have been so well described by Mr. 

 W. L. Dawson and Prof. Lynds Jones in their various writings. I 

 can not do better than to quote freely from one of Professor Jones's 

 (1908) excellent papers on the subject, as follows: 



The proper study of the white-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax dllophus 

 cincinatus) was made during our stay on Carroll Islet. The reader has already 

 seen enough pictures of the rocks and islands characteristic of this coast to be- 

 come familiar with the precipitous sides, jagged outlines, verdure-clad top, and 

 crumbling ledges. The accompanying halftone pictures will give some idea as 

 to what parts of Can-oil Islet these cormorants select us nesting sites, and illus- 

 trate certain details which the camera was able to record. These pictures rep- 

 resent two somewhat different kinds of nesting places, and fairly represent the 

 life of these birds during the breeding season. 



Figure 2 is a representation of nearly the entire colony which occupied a 

 sharp ledge jutting out from the northeast corner of the island, a ledge with :i 

 sharp and jagged summit ridge, as the picture shows. This was the only 

 colony of this species found in such a situation. Figure 1 represents a part 



