130 C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 



262. Sllla fiber Linne. Booby Gannet. 



A rare or accidental visitor from the South. Linsley took it at 

 Guilford, Conn. It has been taken as far north as Massachusetts (in 

 September).* 



Family, PHALACROCORACIDJE. 



263. G-raCTlluS Carbo (Linne) Gray. Common Cormorant ; Shag. 



A tolerably common winter visitant. Captain Brooks writes me 

 that they are " plenty in April and May " and are sometimes seen in 

 fall. Linsley took it at Stonington, Conn. 



264. G-raCUlllS dilophus (Swainson) Gray. Double-crested Cormorant. 



It occurs along the coast during fall and spring, but usually not in 

 very large numbers, though Captain Brooks informs me that he " saw 

 large flocks of them feeding about Faulkner's Island, Conn., in the 

 month of May, 1876," and that he captured two of them. Linsley 

 had a specimen from Stratford, Conn., and he regarded it as a very 

 rare bird. Mr. W. W. Coe has a specimen in his cabinet which he 

 killed on the Connecticut River, near Middletown, October 29th, 1875. 

 While out duck-hunting at the mouth of the East Haven River, 

 November 1 3th, 1875, with Mr. Thomas Osborne, we saw a Cormorant 

 which I judged to be of this species. In speaking of the Cormorants, 

 in New England, in 1675, Josselyn observes: "Though I cannot 

 commend them to our curious palats, the Indians will eat them when 

 they are fley'd, they take them prettily, they roost in the night upon 

 some Rock that lyes out in the Sea, thither the Indian goes in his 

 Birch- Canow when the moon shines clear, and when he is come 

 almost to it, he lets his Canow drive on of it self, when he is come 

 under the Rock he shoves his boat along till he come just under the 

 Cormorants watchman, the rest being asleep, and so soundly do 

 sleep that they will snore like so many Pigs ; the Indian thrusts up 

 his hand of a sudden, grasping the watchman so hard round about 

 his neck that he cannot cry out ; as soon as he hath him in his 

 Canow he wrings off his head, and making his Canow fast, he clam- 

 breth to the top of the Rock, where walking softly he takes them 

 up as he pleaseth, still wringing off their heads ; when he hath slain 

 as many as his Canow can carry, he gives a shout which awaketh 

 the surviving Cormorants, who are gone in an instant."f 



* Putnam, in Proceed. Essex lust., vol. i, p. 221, 1856. 

 f Josselyn's Two Voyages to New England, p. 102, 1615. 



