256 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



island of St. Thomas " a number of brown pelicans 

 were flying at a moderate height near the shore, and 

 every now and then dashing down with closed wings 

 into the water on their prey like gannets, their close 

 allies. Often several of the birds dashed down to- 

 gether at the same instant." And again, " Flights of 

 brown pelicans kept passing over our heads, flying 

 always almost exactly over the same spot on their 

 way from one feeding-ground to another. We shot 

 a number of them as they flew over, at the desire of 

 the German overseer of the farm where we had left 

 our horses, who wanted the birds for eating. I 

 should have thought a pelican to have been, next to 

 a vulture, almost the least palatable of birds, but the 

 man said they were very good." 



In its habits generally this species does not mate- 

 rially differ from the preceding. 



Within the boundaries of North America there 

 are found five or six species of cormorants, and sev- 

 eral varieties of one or more species. One of these, 

 the Common Cormorant, or " Shag," is found in 

 various parts of the world, Ridgway giving as its 

 range " Europe, together with portions of Asia and 

 Africa ; Atlantic coast of North America, south, in 

 winter, to coast of New Jersey." The Double-crested 

 Cormorant is a strictly American species, belonging 

 to " Northeastern North America, south, in winter, to 

 Gulf coast, breeding from Northern United States 

 northward." This latter species ranges extensively 

 throughout the interior of the continent, that is, in 

 the Mississippi Valley. It was, like the pelican, once 

 known to pass up the valley of the Delaware and 



