244 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



a small boat they all flew off, and after circling: about us a few times, 

 to satisfy their curiosity, they settled down on the water to watch us. 

 We counted 204 nests in various stages of construction, closely 

 grouped together on the higher portions of the rock, Avhich was 

 thickly covered with excrement, making the rocks quite slipperj'^ 

 and filling the small water puddles Avith a putrid, vile-smelling mix- 

 ture. Some of the nests had well-made foundations of sticks, but 

 most of them were made wholly or largely of seaweed, kelp, rock- 

 Aveed, grasses, feathers, and bark; they were generally lined Avith 

 grasses or seaAveed, and many Avere decorated Avith green sprigs of fir. 

 spruce, cedar, or laurel; a fcAv Avere still further ornamented Avith 

 gull's feathers, birch bark, or dead cral)s. and one had a long curly 

 shaving in it. A typical nest measured 22 inches in diameter outside 

 and 9 inches inside; they Avere usually built up 4 or 5 inches, but 

 one was 9 inches high. Many of the nests Avere incomplete or empty, 

 but most of them contained from one to five fresh eggs. Tavo similar 

 colonies containing about 75 pairs each Avere noted a little farther 

 along the coast. We Avatched them through our high-poAver glasses 

 and saAv them building their nests ; most of the seaweed was obtained 

 near by, the birds diving for it in deep water and bringing it up in 

 their bills; the sticks and green twigs AA'ere. of course, brought from 

 the mainland several miles aAvay. Although they Avere not breeding 

 in the interior anywhere Ave frequently saAV these cormorants flying 

 up the riA^ers, probably in search of fishing grounds. 



The most southern breeding resort of the double-crested cormorant 

 that I knoAv of on the Atlantic coast is at Black Horse Ledge, a. 

 precipitous crag of rough black rock. toAvering 60 or 70 feet up out 

 of the ocean off Penobscot Bay, Maine. I visited this rock on June 

 19, 1899, where I had some difficulty in landing and climbing up its 

 steep sides. I had seen eight or ten cormorants fly off as I approached 

 and the top of the rock aars filthy Avitli tlieir excrement and SAvarm- 

 ing Avith flies, but no nests had been built. Mr. Ora W. Knight, Avho 

 told me about the colony, said that a fcAA- pairs bred there nearly 

 every 3'ear, but did not lay their eggs until late in June or in July. 

 A fcAA^ pairs of herring gidls also nest on this rock. 



The most populous summer resort for this species that I have CA'er 

 seen is Lake Winnipegosis in Manitoba, a large shalloAA^ lake, about 

 120 miles long and aA'eraging about 15 feet deep, Avith numerous 

 rocky shoals and low reefs of loose boulders. The AA-hole country 

 around the lake is Ioav, flat, and largely marshy, a fine country for 

 Avater foAvl of many species. The AA^aters of the lake are teeming 

 AAith fish, mostly white fish, pickerel, and pike, AAhicli furnish an 

 abundant food supply for thousands of cormorants, gi'ebes, loons, 

 and pelicans. Numerous small islands and rocky reefs furnish con- 



