274 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



Food. — ^The food of the pelagic cormorant consists principally, 

 perhaps wholly, of fish. Prof. Harold Heath (1915) says: " Several 

 times at sea these birds were seen feeding on herrings," 



It can be distinguished from other species by its size and shape, as 

 well as by the white flank patches, if present. As a diver and a 

 swimmer it is an expert, though it seldom rests on the water. It 

 must be exceedingly swift in the pursuit of its finny prey. Being 

 more slender and more elegant in form than the other cormorants, 

 the flight of this species is rather more graceful than the others. 

 It is a rakish looking craft in the air with its long, slim neck and 

 long tail, but its flight is not swift; its wing strokes are rather 

 rapid, interrupted by intervals of scaling. Dr. Frank M. Chapman 

 (1902) publishes the following interesting note by Mr. J. D, Figgins 

 on the feeding habits of this species: 



When the gulls, by their discordant cries, proclaim the discovery of a school 

 of fish every cormorant within hearing distance flocks to the scene, and in 

 many cases so thoroughly appropriate the school to their own use that the 

 gulls are compelled to seek other feeding grounds, as they do not relish diving 

 into a mass of cormorants. The cormorants make no attempt to fish on their 

 own account, but wait until the gulls discover the game and then appropriate it. 



Cormorants are usually silent birds and this species is no exception 

 to the rule. Mr, Joseph Dixon (1907) says: "They make a par- 

 ticularly groaning sound when on the nest that sounds like someone 

 moaning in pain. We coidd hear it quite a Avays out before we landed 

 and could not imagine what it was." 



Behavior. — These cormorants, which build their nests on inacces- 

 sible cliffs, have few enemies to contend with, except the winged 

 robbers of their eggs and young. Mr. George Willett (1912) writes 

 that on St. Lazaria Island : 



Owing to the depredations of the crows, very few of these birds succeed in 

 raising an entire brood, and I believe there are many who are unable to raise 

 a single young., When frightened from the nest, they very foolishly fly a con- 

 siderable distance to sea and often remain for several minutes at a time. 

 This opportunity is quickly seized by the crows, and in an almost incredibly 

 short time the cormorants' nest is empty. 



Doctor Stejneger (1885) refers to a wholesale destruction of this 

 species in the Commander Islands, as follows : 



During the winter of 1876-77 thousands and thousands were destroyed by an 

 apparently epidemic disease, and masses of the dead birds covered the beach all 

 around the islands. During the following summer comparatively few were 

 seen, but of later years their number has again been increasing, though people 

 having seen their former multitude think that there is no comparison between 

 the past and the present. From Bering Island the reports are similar, with 

 the addition that the stone foxes would not eat the corpses. 



Fall. — The natives in the vicinity of Bering Sea depend largely 

 on the flesh of these cormorants at certain seasons for food; their 



