28 NOTES ON THE 



the guns, when the taxidermists get them for mounting in such 

 numbers as to become a burden, while ordinarily they are a 

 hard bird to obtain, for they are exceedingly shy and vigilant. 

 Except when the water is frozen firmly, there is no time in the 

 year when they may not be seen in almost every general sec- 

 tion where the conditions are favorable to their habits of feed- 

 ing, but their nests are more restricted, and not infrequently 

 are associated with the Blue Herons in their long occupied 

 rookeries. Thousands of people visiting Upper Lake Minne- 

 tonka during a period of full 30 years have seen them thus 

 associated on "Crane Island," and the surprise of everybody 

 has been that both the Cormorants and Herons did not abandon 

 the breeding place long years ago. Their reluctance to aban- 

 don it, however, has been as great as was that of the Sioux, 

 with the advantage over the aborigines that there were no 

 treaties in the way of their continued possession. The State 

 authorities have discovered the same fact and have tardily 

 recognized the obligation to protect them from weapons of 

 civilized warfare. Local observers in nearly all parts of the 

 State report them from "occasional" to "innumerable," accor- 

 ing to how near their breeding places the observations have 

 been made, especially after they have commenced preparations 

 for incubation. 



The preparations for incubation are made about the 10th of 

 May in large communities, on islands in the lakes and ponds, 

 and almost impenetrable marshes, where are some large, 

 branching trees in which they mostly build their coarse but 

 substantial nests. These are usually bulky from having been 

 added to a little from year to year, and consist of land and wa- 

 ter weeds, portions of vines and some sticks, without mucJi 

 mechanism in their arrangements, being piled together around a 

 deep depression, in which they lay three pale greenish or blu- 

 ish eggs, over the surface of which is spread a smear of cal- 

 careous material making them somewhat rough to the touch. 

 It is not an uncommon sight to see one or more of their nests 

 on the same tree on which are a number of the herons' nests, 

 with whom they have no neighbor jars apparently. Being 

 principally fish eaters they spend most of the time in the water 

 where their movements in pursuit of their prey are simply 

 marvelous in velocity. With their totipalmated feet folded 

 flatly into mere blades while carried forward and when struck 

 out backwards opening to their utmost, and the half-spread 

 wings beating with inconceivable rapidity, they seem to fly 



