BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



Each mother murre lays one enormous egg upon the bare 

 rocky ledge, and this she guards with unfailing care during 

 the long period of incubation. The birds set upright with 

 their bodies erect and their heads held high. The extreme 

 toughness of the egg insures it against harm upon the naked 

 rock, and the striking diversity in markings, I suspect, aids the 

 mother bird in distinguishing her treasure from that of her 

 neighbor. The eggs are extremely pointed, thus lessening 

 the danger of their rolling off the cliffs, and they are most 

 commonly colored a pale sea green, variously marked, splashed 

 and scrawled with black and brown. 



Three species of cormorants breed upon the Farallones, 

 the commonest being Brandt's, which nests in large colonies. 

 It may be known by the peculiar white, stiff growth of feathers 

 on the sides of the neck, in strong contrast to the iridescent 

 greenish or bluish-black plumage. Baird's cormorant is much 

 smaller than Brandt's, and the iridescent effect of the plum- 

 age is much more lustrous. There is also a patch of white on 

 the flanks which serves as a distinguishing mark, and two 

 crests, one on top of the head, the other on the back of the 

 neck. The Farallon cormorant may be known, in breeding 

 plumage, by two crests of white plumes, one over each eye, 

 and by the orange color of the gular pouch or sack of naked 

 skin at the base of the bill. The gular pouch of Brandt's cor- 

 morant is dull blue, and of Baird's, dull red, during the nest- 

 ing period. 



Between the eggers and the gulls the Brandt's cormorants 

 had fared badly, and we failed to discover any nests contain- 

 ing eggs. It is worthy of note that while Brandt's cormorant 

 decorates its nest around the sides with bright, fresh seaweed, 



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