LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETREl^ AND PELICANS. 281 



somest, neatest, and cleanest cormorants' nests that I had ever seen. 

 The nests were large, well built, and securely plastered onto a firm 

 foundation ; some were made almost wholly of green grass and sods, 

 evidently gathered in the center of the island ; others were made par- 

 tially or wholly of various pretty seaweeds, sea ferns (Sertularidae) 

 and sea mosses, fresh and neat in appearance and of various shades of 

 brown, pink, and purple, probably obtained at considerable depths by 

 diving; some of the nests were profusely decorated with gulls' 

 feathers. One typical large nest measured 20 by 16 inches in diameter 

 outside, was built up G inches high, and hollowed in the center about 

 3 inches; another, small nest, measured 14 by 12 inches outside, 3 

 inches high, and nearly 3 inches deep. 



H^ggs. — The eggs are small in proportion to the size of the birds; 

 the measurements of 47 eggs, in the United States National Museum 

 and the writer's collections, average 60.3 by 37.6 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 65.5 by 38.5, 62 by 41.5, 

 53.2 by 36.2, and 62.3 by 33 millimeters. 



The ground color is pale bluish white, which is almost wholly con- 

 cealed by a rough calcareous deposit, more or less nest stained and 

 soiled. They are much elongated in shape, varying from elliptical 

 ovate to cylindrical ovate. 



Young. — The incubation period is about three weeks. When first 

 hatched the young are naked, blind, and quite helpless, a dark, livid, 

 purplish brown in color. They grow rapidly and like other members 

 of the family are fed on semi-digested regurgitated food, for which a 

 more solid diet of small fish, crabs, and shrimps is substituted as they 

 grow older. Within a few days after hatching, down begins to ap- 

 pear on the dorsal tracts and the young bird is soon well covered 

 with dark-gray down mottled with white on the belly. 



Plu7iiages. — Mr. William Palmer (1899) has described in detail 

 the development of the downy and juvenal plumages in this species. 

 At the end of six weeks the young cormorants are practically fully 

 grown and ready to fly, the wings and tail being fully developed 

 before the contour plumage is completed. The full adult plumage 

 is not acquired until the fall of the second year; young birds in the 

 dull brownish plumage and lacking the brilliant colors of the facial 

 parts frequent the breeding grounds when one year old but they 

 probably do not breed until the following season. Young birds in 

 this plumage closely resemble the young of other species, but they 

 can be distinguished by the narrow frontal naked space or by the 

 outline of the feathering surrounding the gular sac. 



Behavior. — The red-faced cormorant can not be readily distin- 

 guished at a distance from other species of the genus; its flight is 

 similar, slow, strong and direct, with rapid wing-beats and occa- 

 sional intervals of scaling, and with head, neck and feet outstretched 



