al 
3 
THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 535 
The female resembles the male, but is smaller. 
Hab. — Labrador, and along the coast as far south as New Jersey in winter. 
These birds are abundant on the coast of Labrador, where large numbers assem- 
ble for the purpose of reproduction, forming their nests upon the inaccessible ledges 
of rocky cliffs. 
Their mode of flight is swift and strong. Their food is obtained by diving and 
pursuing it beneath the surface, where they make rapid progress by the aid of their 
wings. 
HIS species is pretty common on our coast in the latter 
part of autumn and during the winter. It is not gre- 
garious, but is seen singly or, at most, in pairs. It is shy, 
and difficult of approach, and seems ever on the alert for 
danger. The Grand Menan is the most southern breeding- 
place of this bird in our neighborhood. There it builds a 
large nest of seaweeds on shelves of steep cliffs or in crev 
ices of the rocks. The eggs are usually three in number. 
They are of a bluish-green color which is covered, over 
nearly their whole surface, with a calcareous deposit. They 
are of an elongated ovate form, and average in dimensions 
about 2.90 by 1.75 inch. They are, in their various sizes, 
impossible of identification from the succeeding species. 
GRACULUS DILOPHUS. — Gray. 
The Double-crested Cormorant. 
Phalacrocorax dilophus, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 483. Aud. Orn. Biog., ITI. 
(1835) 420; V. (1889) 628. b., Birds Am., VI. (1843) 423. 
Graculus dilophus, Gray. Gen. of Birds (1845). 
DESCRIPTION. 
Greenish-black; behind each eye a recurved crest of loose feathers; gular sac 
orange; second quill longest; tail of twelve feathers. 
Adult. — The plumage of the head, neck, lower part of the back and entire under 
surface is greenish-black, the feathers of the upper part of the back, the wing- 
coverts, the scapularies and tertiaries, grayish-brown or dark-ash, the margins of 
which are greenish-black; primaries blackish-brown, lighter on the inner webs; the 
secondaries dark grayish-brown; tail black, as are also the shafts; running from 
the bill over the eye is a line of white filamentous feathers, — there are also a few of 
the same character sparsely distributed over the neck; behind each eye is a tuft of 
rather long slender feathers, erect and curving forwards; bare space in the region 
of the eye, and gular sac, orange; upper mandible blackish-brown, with the edges 
yellowish; lower yellow, marked irregularly with dusky; iris bright-green: legs, 
feet, and claws black, claw of the middle toe pectinated. 
