280 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



effort to fly. Amidst all the noise and confusion the stolid red- 

 faced cormorants sat unmoved upon their- nests, on the wide shelves 

 of rock projecting from the low cliffs, their rich glossy black 

 plumage glistening with metallic tints of purple, blue, green, and 

 bronze, offset by the brilliant scarlet face and the gular sac of 

 clear smalt blue, a striking feature in the scene, a picture of dig- 

 nified indifference. All about them murres were sitting on their 

 eggs and the well-made nests of Pacific kittiwakes were often near 

 them. They seemed to live on good terms with their neighbors 

 though they took no part in the exciting events going on about them ; 

 they were busy brooding over their young and it w^as only when 

 we almost touched them, as they stood craning their necks at us 

 in awkward stupidity, that they finally flew off in silence. 



Although the common name of this species is aptly descriptive, 

 it might also be well applied to other cormorants; I have always 

 thought the old name hicristatus peculiarly fitting for the red-faced 

 cormorant, for its two conspicuous crests, one on the crown, and 

 one on the occiput, make it more strikingly double crested than 

 dilophus, or auritus, as it is now called. Much confusion seems to 

 have existed, among the earlier writers on the birds of Bering Sea, 

 as to the species of cormorants noted in this region, but between 

 pelagicus and urile there seems to be sufficient difference to distin- 

 guish these two species at all ages. The extent of the naked skin 

 on the face and forehead of urile is distinctive in the adult; its 

 larger size, stouter bill and heavier head are characteristic at all 

 ages; and even the downy young are different in color. 



Nesting. — The breeding season begins early, two or three weeks 

 earlier than with the other sea birds of Bering Sea, with the pos- 

 sible exception of the glaucous and glaucous-winged gulls. Eggs, 

 well incubated, were taken by Elliott as early as June 1, 1872, and 

 young, about a week old were secured by Palmer on June 13, in- 

 dicating that Q^gg laying must have begun about the middle of May 

 or earlier. At the time of our visit, July 7, 1911, nearly all the 

 nests contained young of various ages ; a very few nests held heavily- 

 incubated eggs, probably laid about the middle of June or later, 

 these may have been second layings where the nests had been robbed 

 by gulls. Probably the last of the young do not leave the nests 

 until well on toward the end of August, extending the breeding 

 season over three or four months. 



The nests are placed on broad flat ledges of rock on the steepest 

 cliffs, where they are often inaccessible, though on Walrus Island the 

 cliffs are so low that the nests are easily reached. Other writers have 

 stated that they are exceedingly filthy about their nests, but my expe- 

 rience was quite to the contrary ; the nests that I saw were the hand- 



