1 8 Mackay, Habits of the Double-crested Cormorant. Ljata. 



HABITS OF THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT 



(PHALACROCORAX DILOPHUS) IN 



RHODE ISLAND. 



BY GEORGE H. MACKAY. 



I first visited West Island, Seconnet Point, Rhode Island, 

 in April, 1S69, and with three exceptions have passed a few 

 days there every spring since. It was while there during April, 

 1870, that my attention was first attracted to the Cormorants 

 which I often saw flying about (a few every day) and alighting 

 on the water close to the breakers near the island. This fre- 

 quency did not, however, continue, for after 1872 they ceased 

 visiting the immediate neighborhood of the island and I have 

 not seen one alight there since. I have, however, seen more or 

 less of them in April every year flying past the island as they 

 passed from one place to another. I soon learned something 

 regarding their movements and roosting place, which was on 

 the Cormorant Rocks, located three and a half miles west of 

 Seconnet Point and three quarters of a mile southwest from 

 Sachuest Point on the Newport shore. 



Although often intending to visit these rocks for the purpose 

 of securing some of the Cormorants, I have never done so until 

 this vear. I have nevertheless watched them on the island with 

 the aid of the large glass and seen them many times come, just 

 before sunset, to roost on the rocks above mentioned. During 

 my shooting experience on the coast I have taken only a very few 

 Cormorants, or Shags as they are commonly called, for the 

 reason that I never went after them, and also because they 

 usually avoid passing within gun shot of a boat. I remember 

 shooting one, a lone bird, off a headland at Swampscott, Mass., 

 many years ago (species not noted), and one on January 29, 

 1S66, and two on February 8, 1S66, in South Carolina (known 

 there by the colored people as 'Nigger Geese'). On October 5, 

 1877, I shot a lone Phalacrocorax carbo on Nantucket Island, 

 Mass., and still another of the same kind on April 21, 1SS9, off 

 West Island, which comprise all I have ever taken. 



