THE COMMON CORMORANT. 517 



by the earlier observers, and its bones are abundant in the 

 shell mounds on the New England coast. 



The Sea Dove, or Dovekie (Alle nigricans), a very north- 

 ern species, is common to the coasts of Nova Scotia in 

 winter, as it is also to those of New England. This little 

 Ice-bird, as it is called by the fishermen, but 8.50 long, with 

 head and bill formed almost precisely like that of a Quail, 

 and with a short pointed tail, is blue-black above, white be- 

 neath, the mature bird having the throat and neck black in 

 summer, with stripes in the scapular, tips to the secondaries, 

 and spot over the eye, white. Several closely allied species 

 on the Pacific Coast are variously ornamented about the head 

 in maturity, as the Crested, the Whiskered, and the Knob- 

 billed Auks. 



THE COMMON CORMORANT. 



On the west side of Seal Island, and about a mile out, is 

 a high ledge of rocks called the Devil's Limb. Here a few 

 of the Common Cormorants, or Shags, as the fishermen 

 call them (Phalacrocorax carbo^, still attempt to breed. The 

 rocks are thoroughly white-washed with their excrements, 

 and the nests, placed in depressions and on shelvings of 

 the highest peaks of rocks, are quite bulky, and constructed 

 entirely of rock-weed, with which the ledge is heavily draped 

 up to high-water mark. In a pretty deep depression in the 

 center of the pile of rock-weeds are some 4 eggs, about 

 2. 62x1. 75, oblong-elliptical, light bluish-green, more or less 

 besmeared over with a white, limy deposit. No matter 

 how long they are cooked, the white of these eggs will not 

 become opaque. The rocky islands off the coast of Labra- 

 dor and Newfoundland, are a favorite breeding resort of 

 this species, as also of the Double-crested. Here in the soli- 

 tudes of tempestuous waters, this Raven of the Sea* fishes 



* Cormorant, or the French Cormoran, is supposed to be derived from the Latin Corvus 

 marinas, or Sea Raven. 



