262 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



be seen standing on nests. We stopped the boat when within one hundred 

 yards and after removing our clothing slid cautiously overboard into from 

 three to four feet of water. Camera in hand Goldman and I stalked the bii'ds 

 to within about forty yards and secured a few exposures. The bushes extended 

 in a narrow belt for about two hundred yards in the otherwise open water 

 and in them were perched between two to three hundred birds. At our first 

 stop the outstretched necks and changing position of some of the birds gave 

 evidence of their uneasiness and as we waded still nearer most of them flew 

 clumsily down into the open water. After moving out a hundred yards be- 

 yond tlie line of bushes they formed a black line on the water where they 

 remained as long as we stayed in the vicinity. When the birds became alarmed 

 at our approach they began a curious guttural grunting which came in a low 

 continuous chorus from those left in the bushes as well as those in the water. 

 These notes sounded much like the low grunting of a lot of small pigs while 

 feeding. As we waded among the bushes the birds which had remained by 

 their nests pitched ofE into the water one after the other and swam out to 

 join the main flock ; or took wing, and after a short detour, came circling close 

 overhead, uttering at short intervals their guttural notes of alarm or protest. 

 The nests were strong platforms placed on forking Branches and measured 

 about 15 inches across and 4 to 6 inches deep, with a shallow depression in 

 the top. They were composed entirely of small sticks compactly arranged, 

 as is shown in detail in the accompanying photographs. From one to half 

 a dozen nests were placed in a bush and we planted our tripods In the muddy 

 bottom, and, standing nearly waist deep in the water, secured good pictures 

 before calling up the boat and getting aboard. As the bushes were scattered, 

 we had no trouble in poling about and examining the nests at leisure. Most 

 of them were just completed and contained no eggs. Quite a number had 

 a single egg and in a few cases two eggs were found. A series of 18 eggs 

 were taken. They are rather small for the size of the bird and have a pale- 

 gi*een ground color overlaid with the usual chalky white deposit which gives 

 them a greenish-white shade. 



Mr. J. H. Riley (1905) found a colony of this species breeding in 

 the Bahamas, of Avhich he writes : 



A colony of these cormorants was breeding in some tall mangroves in the? 

 large salt-water lake on AVatlings Island. Most of the young were found sit- 

 ting on the edge of the nests^ that were 15 to 20 feet up, or on the limbs out 

 of the nest. Some of the young were already in the water with their parents, 

 though they could not fly, apparently. A few nests contained heavily incu- 

 bated eggs. This was on July 11. A fevi^ cormorants were seen on the salt 

 pans around Clarence Harbor, Long Island, but as none were shot here their 

 identity is in doubt, though they appeared to belong to the same form as those 

 shot on Watlings. The young are eaten by the inhabitants and are said to be 

 very good. The numerous downy skins found along the shores of the salt lakes 

 on Watlings would indicate that young cormorant is quite an item in the 

 domestic economy of the islanders. 



Eggs. — The Mexican cormorant usually lays four or five eggs, simi- 

 lar to other cormorants' eggs in shape and texture. The ground 

 color is pale bluish white, but it is almost entirely concealed by a 

 thin coating of white calcareous deposit and the eggs are often nest 

 stained. The measurements of 41 eggs, in various collections, aver- 



