GANNET 311 



When seen off our coast, Cormorants are generally flying 

 at some distance above the water, with necks outstretched, 

 and look like dark-colored geese or very large ducks. Their 

 wings look large in proportion to the bird, and their wing- 

 strokes are much slower than a loon's. Occasionally they 

 light on a point of rock or a spar-buoy, when they bend 

 the neck in a characteristic curve. When they perch, they 

 squat on their tails and feet, and stand nearly upright. 

 When thus sitting they often spread their wings and hold 

 them for some time in what Dr. Townsend has called a 

 " spread-eagle " posture, resembling that bird as pictured 

 on our coins and coat of arms. 



Note. — The Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is ordinarily a very 

 rare visitant in late fall and winter off the New England coast ; a 

 small colony of this species winter each year on Cormorant Rocks 

 in Narragansett Bay. (See Howe and Sturtevant, Birds of Rhode 

 Island, p. 33.) 



GANNETS: FAMILY SULID^l 



Gannet. Sula bassana 



35.00. Tail 9.50. Bill 4.00 



Ad. — Entire bird white, except the ends of the quill-feathers 

 which are black ; the head and neck are yellowish when seen at 

 close range. Im. — Upper parts brownish; under parts lighter; 

 a white band across the tail. 



The Gannet breeds on a few rocky cliffs in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, and occurs as a rather uncommon migrant in 

 May, and again in October and November, off the coast of 

 New York and New England. A few Gannets winter off 

 Long Island Sound. Monomoy Point, eight miles from 

 Chatham, Mass., is an excellent place to observe them, as 

 they fish over the shoals known as the Shovels. The adult 

 birds are as large as a goose, pure white, except the tips of 



