,38 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 12 



The nests of alhociliatiis can always he told at a glance from tliose of the 

 two following species. They are quite bulky and well made, and are invariably 

 formed of weed stems, small sticks, or whatever similar material is handy. They 

 are always placed (on these islands) on the ground, usually on a liigh hillside. 

 Although breeding in colonies, these are seldom compact ones, and where a peli- 

 can colony is available, they prefer to build among tlie nests of the latter. Three, 

 more rarely four, and occasionally five, eggs are laid, but because of the depre- 

 dations of the gulls the breeding season is a long one. In addition, the time when 

 eggs are deposited would seem to vary greatly from year to year (as is the case 

 with our other cormorants as well), for A. van Rossem {MS) took a set of five 

 eggs on the Coronados March 26, 1909, while J. Grinnell and F. S. Daggett (:/.?) 

 found two nests with eggs, and several containing small young, in the same local- 

 ity, August 7, 1902. 



89. Phalacrocorax penicillatus (Brandt) 



Brandt Cormorant 



Oraculus penicillatus (1) Cooper, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., iv, 1870, p. 79. (2) Henshaw, 

 Rep. Wheeler Surv., 1876, p. 276. 



Phalacrocorax penicillatus {3) Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, Water Birds, N. Am., ii, 1884, 

 p. 159. (//) Streator, Proc. Sta. Barbara Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1887, p. 23. (7) Blake, 

 Auk, IV, 1887, p. 329. (6) Streator, Orn. & Ool., xiii, 1888, p. 54. (7) Grinnell, Pasa- 

 dena Acad. Sol., I, 1897, p. 25. (8) Grinnell, Pasadena Acad. Sci., ii, 1898, p. 9. (.9) 

 Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvi, 1898, p. 364. (10) Grinnell, Pac. Coast 

 Avif., 3, 1902, p. 16. (11) Brewster. Birds Cape Region Lower Calif., 1902, p. 37. 

 (12) Grinnell and Daggett, Auk, xx, 1903, pp. 32, 37. (13) Breninger, Auk, xxi, 1904, 

 p. 219. (1.',) Mearns, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., lvi, 1907, p. 141. (lo) Linton, Condor, x, 

 1908, p. 82. (16) Linton, Condor, x, 1908, p. 126. (/7) Wright, Condor, xi, 1909, p. 

 99. (;>S) Osburn, Condor, xi, 1909, p. 136. (19) Willett, Condor, xii, 1910, p. 173. 

 (20) Osburn, Condor, xiii, 1911, p. 32. (21) Willett, Pac. Coast, Avif., 7, 1912, p. 20. 

 (22) Wright and Snyder, Condor, xv, 1913, pp. 86, 90. (23) Grinnell, Pac. Coast 

 Avif., 11, 1915, p. 30. 



This, our commonest species of the genus, is to be found about the shores 

 of all the islands and the adjacent mainland, breeding on or near all the islands 

 that have suitable rocky promontories. There are perhaps a dozen colonies of 

 these birds on the Coronados, distributed over all four of the islands. J. Glrin- 

 nell and F. S. Daggett (12) found that they had completed nesting operations 

 for the year there by August 7, 1902. 



C. B. Linton (15) noted immense flocks on San Clemente during January 

 and February, 1907. These flew back and forth daily, between their roosts on 

 the northwest coast and the feeding grounds, and I observed the same thing there 

 the first part of April, 1915. Linton took specimens in breeding plumage in Feb- 

 ruary and IMarch, and reported the species as breeding in small numbers on the 

 northwest coast of the island. 



J. Grinnell (7) states that there is a small colony on the north side of San 

 Nicolas Island, and C. B. Linton (21) saw incomplete sets there April 3, 1910. 

 They breed in limited numbers on several large detached rocks near Catalina. 

 There are large rookeri(^s on Snnta Barbara Island, where T found fresh eggs 



