66 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



some individuals remain tliroughout the year, although the majority 

 move southward during the winter, at which season they are not un- 

 common along the Maine coast and even somewhat farther south. 



Inland records at any season are rare and there are but one or two 

 records (and these not perfectly authenticated) for the Great Lakes. It 

 is therefore with much pleasure that we are able to record the capture 

 in Michigan of a fine specimen of this bird and its preservation in the 

 University Museum at Ann Arbor. This bird, an immature female 

 in the white-spotted brown plumage, was shot October 19, 1911, by Mr. 

 J. P. Case, on a small lake in Hamburg township a few miles north of Ann 

 Arbor. Mr. Norman A. Wood of Ann Arbor, to whom we are indebted 

 for the record, states that when first observed the gannet appeared to 

 be asleep, since it was resting with the head hidden beneath the wing 

 in the manner of a domestic goose. Evidently it was weak from lack 

 of food if not from fruitless wandering. 



Gannets nest always in communities, and build bulky nests of seaweeds 

 on ledges and shelves of almost inaccessible rocks. The largest and best 

 known nesting grounds in this country are on the Bird Rocks in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, but the species formerly nested on one or more islets 

 off the coast of Maine. Only a single egg is laid, which is at first pure 

 white with a thick chalk-like shell which soon becomes soiled and stained 

 by the feet of the bird and the materials of the nest. The egg measures 

 about 3 by 1.92 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



" Lower jaw (i. e. malar region), together with sides of chin and throat, densely feathered. 

 Legs and feet blackish. Adult: White, the remiges (wing-feathers) dusky brown, the 

 head and neck above washed with buff. Young: Dusky, everywhere streaked or speckled 

 with white. Length 30 — 40.50 inches; wing about 19.50; tail 10, culmen 4. (Ridgway.) 



Family 12. PHALACROCORACID^.— Cormorants. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. Tail of 14 feathers. — Common Cormorant. (Appendix.) 

 AA. Tail of 12 feathers. — Double-crested Cormorant. No. 27. 



27. Double-crested Cormorant. Phalacrocorax auritus auritus (Less.). 



(120) 



Synonyms: Cormorant, Shag, Water Turkey. — Carbo auritus, Lesson, 1831. — Pelecanus 

 (Carbo) dilophus, Sw. & Rich., 1831. — Graculus dilophus. Gray, 1849. — Phalacrocorax 

 diplohus, Nutt., 1834,* Aud., 1835, Ridgw., 1881, Coues, 1882. 



Figures 8 and 9. 



Readily recognized from its size, black color, duck-like legs and feet 

 (but with the four toes all connected by webs), long neck, very small head 

 with bill hooked like a hawk's, and entire lack of nostrils. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, breeding from the Bay of Fundy, 

 the Great Lakes, Minnesota and Dakota northward; south in winter to 

 the southern states. 



