LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 277 



tbe coast, when we approached the rocky shores, evidences of these birds were 

 scattei'ed along the rocks. 



Mr. Walter E. Bryant (1888), wiitin*:; of this cormorant on the 

 Farallon Islands, says : 



They are less common than the two foregoing species, with whicli they do not 

 associate. The nests are built usually in the most inaccessible places, and at 

 all altitudes ; some wei'e found so close to the water's etlge that they were 

 splashed by the highest waves beating against the rocky shore. The same 

 rookeries are used from year to year, and the same nests are occupied after 

 being robbed, the owners simply adding a few more pieces of weeds before 

 laying. They congregate in colonies of eight or ten pairs, nesting on natural 

 shelves of perpendicular or overhanging rocks. Three or four eggs are laid in 

 a nest of the same material as is used by the other cormorants. Incubation 

 conmiences after the first egg is laid, in order to keep it protected from the 

 gulls. The birds may be seen on the nests for days before the first egg is laid. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the Baird cormorant are practically indis- 

 tinguishable from those of the pelagic cormorant, though, strangly 

 enough, the eggs, of which I have measurements, average larger. The 

 measurements of 40 eggs, in various collections, average 61.7 by 40.4 

 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 65 by 40 

 and 51 b}^ 36 millimeters. 



Behavior. — Referring to the behavior of Baird cormorants, Mr. W. 

 Leon Dawson (1909) writes: 



Cormorants plunge into the wildest waters as fearlessly as sealions, and they 

 carry on their fishing operations about the shoulders of booming reefs, which 

 humans dare not approach. After luncheons, wliich occur quite frequently in 

 the cormorant day. the birds love to gather on some low-lying reef, just above 

 the reach of the waves, and devote the intervening hours to that most solemn 

 function of life, digestion. There is no evidence that the birds discuss oceanic 

 politics on these occasions ; the benevolent assimilation of a twelve-inch cultus 

 cod is presumed to be ample occupation for imion hours. 



When the birds of a colony quit their nests tliey launch out swiftly, wagging 

 their head from side to side if the danger is above them. They m.iy join 

 the puffins and gulls for a few rounds of inspection, but oftener they settle 

 in the water at some distance from the shore, a large company of them looking 

 and acting very much like a flock of black geese. It requires quite an effort 

 on the bird's part to rise from the water, but this is done with a single motion 

 of the wings, unassisted.' by the feet, as would be the case with heavy ducks 

 and loons. If the shag has been diving it may burst out of the water with 

 the acquired impetus of the chase, and once under way its flight is swift 

 and vigorous and not altogether ungraceful. 



^Winter. — An interesting account of a winter resort of this and 

 other cormorants on an island off the coast of Lower California 

 is given by Mr. A. W. Anthony (1906) as follows: 



The first cormorants will arrive at the island as early as 4 o'clock, and taking 



up their station well back from the beach will be joined by the next flock. 



The black patch on the gray sand extends its outposts until it meets the brown 



borders of the pelican colony on the one side and the snowy expanse of gulls 



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