154 



OROTTHOLOGTST 



[Vol. U-^o. 10 



they did sooner than I expected, being very 

 wild. I shot botli barrels at them. At the 

 second shot one dropped, and as they went 

 across another weakened and lit among some 

 Sandpipers. The others went over the hills 

 ("and far away"). Picking up my bird I 

 went across and easily collected the other 

 wounded one. They were in the black breed- 

 ing dress and were certainly handsome. Upon 

 skinning them they were found to be like so 

 much butter, having generally almost half an 

 inch of fat around their bodies, and to make a 

 nice specimen of them was truly difficult. 



I also saw a Hock of Black-bellied Plover, 

 but they were even wilder than the Golden, 

 and I could not get in range of them. I no- 

 ticed them on several other occasions but it 

 was always the same — wild and wary. I 

 made some wooden decoys and painted them. 

 Although I could fool Golden and Field Plover 

 with them the Black-bellied Plover were too 

 wise to be caught napi)ing in such a manner, 

 so I was compelled to go without a si)ecimen 

 of lieltetini. 



I now gathered up my birds and placed 

 them in the buggy, and arrived home in time 

 for dinner. (^c<>. O. Cuntwell. 



(To be continued.) 

 Minneapolis, Minn. 



Nesting of the Florida Cormorant. 



In Davie's Nest.s ar,il E(/(in of Nortli Ameri- 

 can Birdu the Florida Cormorant (Phaldcroco- 

 rax dilopliusflnridanHM) in given as "resident in 

 Florida and along the gulf coast, whei-e it 

 nests in communities on the Mangrove islands. 

 The nests are always placed in Mangrove 

 bushes, and are composed of the twigs, and 

 are very often lined with the leaves of this 

 plant. ... In the vicinity of Tampa and Char- 

 lotte harbor the birds nest in May and .Tune," 

 etc. 



My experience with this bird is conlined to 

 a short trip on the Gulf near St. Marks, Fla., 

 early in April, 1889, and being entirely at vari- 

 ance with above may be of interest. 



Our collecting gi'ouud was for the most part 

 the heavily wooded lowland from two to three 

 miles back from the Gulf. The growth is 

 largely "cabbage'" palmetto and pine, and 

 along the numerous streams, on the borders of 

 the many ponds the cypress frequently attains 

 large size. Tramping over such ground was 

 extremely tiresome, it being for the most part 



soft or muddy, and we were often forced to 

 wade knee deep through bogs and swamps. 



We had noticed the Cormorant flying from 

 the coast inland, high over the tree tops, and 

 for several days had been planning a search 

 for their supposeil " rookery," and finally on 

 the 7th of April we made an early start, and 

 by 8 o'clock were well back in the swamp, 

 ready for the first observation. 



This was taken from the top of a tall pine 

 tree, and a few minutes served to locate the 

 site, probably a mile farther back from the 

 gulf, the birds being seen to drop down into 

 the woods at that place. 



Carefully noting by compass the direction, 

 we fioundered through mud and slime for half 

 an hour before reaching our destination, which 

 proved to be a circular pond, probably one hun- 

 dred yards in diameter of open water, and 

 bordered with immense cypress and pine trees 

 growing in the water, which was in some places 

 two to three feet deep, and it extended back 

 into the woods twenty-five yards or more. 



In the largest of the cypress trees we found 

 the Cormorant domiciled. Tlie nests were 

 placed for the most part on the horizontal 

 limbs well out from the body of the tree, 

 .some however well up in the tops of the trees. 

 Eight trees were occupied, and ninety-seven 

 nests were counted. 



The largest tree was at least six feet in di- 

 ameter Jit a height of eight leet from the 

 ground, and carried its size in good propor- 

 tion well up to the lower limbs, which we es- 

 timated to be over sixty feet from the ground. 

 This tree contained twenty -three nests, but 

 none of the others had over sixteen nests. 



The nests were quite large as seen from 

 the ground, but were found to be not very 

 deep. Nearly all had a bird sitting on them, 

 and the appearance of their long slender dark 

 necks, small tufted heads, and elongated bills 

 was odd and interesting. 



We found that the nests were never left un- 

 occupied after one egg had been laid, and that 

 the bird on the nest was fed with fish, carried 

 a distance of three to five miles by the other 

 birds. 



The reason for such close sitting was seen to 

 be the presence of numbers of Fish Crows (Cor- 

 VKS omifrufjus), or as my boatman called them 

 ".Jackdaws," which in several instances were 

 seen to fly into a nest when we had scared oft" 

 the Cornn)rant, and try to devour the eggs. 

 The sound made by the old bird was peculiar, 

 and I could only liken it to several swine feed- 

 ing at a trough. 



