BIRDS FOUND NEAR SHORE OR IN BAYS 53 
be recognized by a white patch on each flank. They 
breed in very small rookeries of ten or a dozen pairs, — 
instead of several hundred as is the case with Brandt 
cormorants, —and are frequently found nesting alone. 
Their site is usually the most inaccessible rocks in the 
vicinity. Frequently, so narrow is the ledge chosen 
that the young are crowded off and are killed by the 
fall to the water or rocks below. Each season the old 
nests are used, being repaired with kelp or relined with 
fresh sea moss. Baird Cormorants, though so retiring, 
are particularly courageous in defence of their nests and 
young, and are either so devoted to the former or so 
stupid that they will return after being robbed and 
brood upon the empty nest. Their nests are con- 
structed with greater care than those of the other 
species mentioned, and are lined with the more deli- 
cate varieties of sea moss as well as the coarse kelp. 
They become cemented into a more or less solid mass 
and also glued to the rock with guano. Some of them 
are so solid as to warrant the opinion that they have 
been in use many years. The feeding habits of this 
species are like those of the Brandt and Farallone 
cormorants. 
125. AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. — Pelecanus 
erythrorhynchos. 
Famity: The Pelicans. 
Length: 44-6 feet. 
Adult Nuptial Plumage: Entirely white, quills black, whitish at base; 
a pendant crest of pale yellow feathers, and a horny protuberance on 
top of bill ; pouch and bill reddish ; feet bright red. 
