LIFE HISTORIES OF NOETII AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 237 



the New England coast, where now they are uncommon. Thus Wil- 

 liam Wood (1634) writes: 



Cormorants bee as common as other fowles which destroy abundance of small 

 fish, these are not worth the shooting because they are the worst of fowles for 

 aieate, tasting ranke and lishy ; againe, one may shoot twenty times and misse, 

 for seeing the fire in the panne, they dive under the water before the shot 

 comes to the place where they were ; they used to roost upon the tops of trees, 

 and rockes, being a very heavy drowsie creature, so that the Indians will goe 

 in their Cannoes in the night, and take them from the Rockes, as easily as 

 women take a lien from roost. 



Spring. — The birds arrive early on the breeding grounds and 

 begin nesting before the snows of ^sinter have disappeared. Frazar 

 (1887) says that in southern Labrador it is sometimes the case that 

 the frozen foundations of the nest give way under the summer heat, 

 and the domicile and its contents are projected into the sea. He 

 found large young in the nests at Cape Whittle, as early as June 19th. 



Courtship. — The courtship of the cormorant is spectacular and is 

 performed both on the rocky ledges and cliffs and on the water. In 

 the former situation the male approaches the female with an awk- 

 ward waddle or hop and sinks down before her on his breast. In 

 both situations the neck is stretched up to its full extent, with widely 

 open beak and the brilliant inside lining of the mouth displayed. 

 The tail is cocked up and the head stretched back and down until it 

 touches the back. tSelous (1901) says that "in this attitude he may 

 remain for some seconds more or less, having all the while a lan- 

 guishing or ecstatic expression, after which he brings his head for- 

 ward again, and then repeats the performance some three or four, 

 or perhaps half a dozen times." 



Nesting. — Rocky cliffs are chosen by these birds for their nesting- 

 colonies, and, as a rule, they prefer the elevated stations while the 

 clouble-crestecl species nests for the most part on low rocks or on the 

 lower portions of the cliffs. At Whapatiguan, the breeding place 

 in southern Labrador made famous by Audubon, this species was 

 found by Bryant (18G2) to nest on the higher parts of the cliffs, 

 vrhile the double-crested nested lower down, although he found that 

 the highest nest of all belonged to the double-crested species. Fraztir 

 (1887) at this place observed the double-crested nests all over the 

 cliff, but those of carho close to the top only. Brewster (1884) vis- 

 ited a colony of 20 pairs at Wreck Bay, Anticosti, and says the nests 

 were situated " on the projections of a vertical limestone cliff some 

 15 feet below the summit and at least 100 above the sea." Audubon's 

 (1840) description of the colony at Whapatiguan is classic; he says: 



We saw no nests of this species placed in any other situations than the 

 highest shelves of the precipitous rocks fronting the water and having a south- 

 ern exposure * * *. ( )n some slielves eight or ten yards in extent, the nests 

 were crowded together; but more usually they were placed apart on every 



