270 BUIiETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



with wings half open, that, should necessity arise, no time may be lost in mak- 

 ing good its escape. Again, a group of them will sit on a low-lying reef, or 

 even on a floating log, with wings half extended, " drying their clothes " in 

 the sunshine. The wings as well as the feet are used under water, but we 

 can not guess why the cormorants more than other aquatic species should be 

 averse to wet plumage. 



The chief enemy of the Brandt cormorant in its breeding grounds 

 is that persistent robber of all the sea birds on the California coast, 

 the western gull. The cormorant is big and strong enough to defend 

 its eggs and young against its weaker foe, but the omnipresent gulls 

 are so numerous, so persistent, so active, and so ever on the alert to 

 seize a favorable opportunity, that a brood of young cormorants is 

 successfully raised only at the price of eternal vigilance. Fortu- 

 nately the cormorants are prolific layers and persevering in their 

 attempts to raise a brood, for the stupid birds are so often driven 

 away from their nests by some chance intruder that the active gulls, 

 which are not so easily fi'ightened, clean out all the eggs in a colony 

 so frequently that it is a wonder that the cormorants are not dis- 

 couraged and exterminated. 



The cormorants are harmless and peaceable neighbors among the 

 various species which share their breeding grounds — murres, gulls, 

 pelicans, and other cormorants. At other seasons of the year they 

 also associate with other species. Mr. Loomis (1895) says: 



Sometimes solitary cormorants returning to their rookery joined the files of 

 migrating California murres, and frequently single murres were observed bring- 

 ing up the rear of strings of outgoing cormorants. On one occasion a Cali- 

 fornia brown pelican was seen at the end of a line of cormorants. 



Winter. — In their winter resorts they often congregate in enor- 

 mous rookeries or roosts. They winter as far north as Puget Sound 

 and are common southward all along the coast in winter. A long 

 line, or a V-shaped flock, of great, black birds winging their heavy 

 flight to and from their feeding grounds is a familiar sight about the 

 islands and the rocky bays. 



DISTRIBUTTON. 



Breeding range. — Pacific coast of North America. From southern 

 Alaska (Forrester Island) southward all along the coast to southern 

 Lower California (Magdalena Bay). Breeding grounds protected 

 in the following reservations: In Alaska, Forrester Island; in 

 Washington, Flattery Rocks and Quillayute Needles; in Oregon, 

 Three Arch Rocks ; and in California, Farallon. 



Winter range. — Includes most of the breeding range, extending 

 from northern Washington (Puget Sound) to southern Lower Cali- 

 fornia (Cape San Lucas). / 



