A Trip to the Farallones, 



was no longer menaced, preening and 

 dressing its own greasy skin in the 

 most unconcerned manner imaginable. 

 Thus was my little romance of brotherly 

 love suddenly overturned. 



Baird's cormorant is more solitary in 

 its habits than the other two species. 

 It resorts to steep cliffs upon which to 

 build its home, and I observed one 

 lonely bird upon her nest on a little 

 shelf of rock only about fifty feet 

 above the booming surf, and completely 

 isolated not only from other individuals 

 of her own species but from all the 

 other birds of the island. What were 

 the thoughts of that mother setting 

 there night and day above the booming 

 surf with the salt spray blown upon 

 her, the precipice of rocks above, and 

 no respite from the ocean's unceasing 

 roar ? Did she love those chalky, 

 white-green eggs beneath her, and was 

 there a tenderness in her cormorant 

 heart that compensated for the want of 

 society and change in that wild solitude \ 



83 



