114 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



logs of wood, and this debris has accumulated near its 

 mouth in the form of an extensive bank. When I 

 .ascended the river in the February of 1898, and passed 

 near to this sandbank, I witnessed an extraordinary 

 spectacle. For over a mile in the water on each side of 

 this stretch of sand, and sitting on it, were myriads of 

 that dark slate-coloured cormorant (Phalacrocorax vigua) 

 called Cotua by the natives. I had seen immense flocks 

 ■of this cormorant at Cumana, for it is plentiful on the 

 north coast of Venezuela, but never before had I beheld 

 such a multitude of birds assembled in one spot. In the 

 vicinity of the town of Cumana, a narrow arm of the sea, 

 separated from the Atlantic by a range of arid hills, runs 

 inland as far as the village of El Muelle. It is called the 

 gulf of Cariaco and it swarms with fish. It is in conse- 

 quence a favourite resort of the Cotua, which can procure 

 a sufficiency of food for its countless numbers only in parts 

 of the sea and in such rivers as are stocked with a super- 

 abundance of fish. The fishermen of Cumana and of the 

 neighbouring island of Margarita, who have ample oppor- 

 tunity of observing the Cotua, say that they have never 

 met with its eggs ; but as there are many inaccessible cliffs 

 in the neighbourhood of these localities, some such spots 

 may be made use of as breeding-places. Perhaps one or 

 two of the many rocky islands of the Caribbean Sea serve 

 this purpose ; perhaps the birds migrate to some recess 

 far away in the north where they have their regular nesting 

 seats ; perhaps they cross the Isthmus and rear their 

 young on some solitary islet in the Pacific. It has been 

 observed that there are not nearly so many Cotuas along 

 the coast of Venezuela during the northern summer months 

 as at other times of the year, so that in all likelihood the 

 birds wander away in warm weather, to return when 



