256 Tue Brrps Asout Us. 
island of St. Thomas “a number of brown pelicans 
were flying at a moderate height near the shore, and 
every now and then dashing down with closed wings 
into the water on their prey like gannets, their close 
allies. Often several of the birds dashed down to- 
gether at the same instant.” And again, ‘“‘ Flights of 
brown pelicans kept passing over our heads, flying 
always almost exactly over the same spot on their 
way from one feeding-ground to another. We shot 
a number of them as they flew over, at the desire of 
the German overseer of the farm where we had left 
our horses, who wanted the birds for eating. I 
should have thought a pelican to have been, next to 
a vulture, almost the least palatable of birds, but the 
man said they were very good.” 
In its habits generally this species does not mate- 
rially differ from the preceding. 
Within the boundaries of North America there 
are found five or six species of cormorants, and sev- 
eral varieties of one or more species. One of these, 
the Common Cormorant, or “Shag,” is found in 
various parts of the world, Ridgway giving as its 
range “ Europe, together with portions of Asia and 
Africa; Atlantic coast of North America, south, in 
winter, to coast of New Jersey.” The Double-crested 
Cormorant is a strictly American species, belonging 
to “ Northeastern North America, south, in winter, to 
Gulf coast, breeding from Northern United States 
northward.” This latter species ranges extensively 
throughout the interior of the continent,—that is, in 
the Mississippi Valley. It was, like the pelican, once 
known to pass up the valley of the Delaware and 
