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appetite it retires to the shore, where it remains in stupid indolence 

 until compelled by hunger to display its great skill at diving, which 

 Mr. Nuttall informs us, is in China turned to profitable account by 

 having birds trained for this purpose. " At a given signal it plun- 

 ges into the water and quickly rises with a fish, which it is preven- 

 ted from swallowing by having a ring placed around the lower part 

 of the neck. After the master is satisfied, the ring is taken off, and 

 the bird allowed to fish for itself." The flesh of the Cormorant is 

 dark colored and rank, and used only as an article of diet among 

 the Greenlanders. 



PHALACROCORAX DILOPHUS— SWAINSON. 



DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 



Double-crested Cormorant, Sw. & Rich. 



Double-crested Cormorant, Nuttall. 



Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax dilophus, Aud. 



Specific Character. — Bill blackish-brown ; orbits and naked skin 

 round the chin yellow; behind the eye, a tuft of slender feathers; 

 general color of plumage deep bluish-black, glossed with green ; fore 

 part of the back and wings greyish-brown. Tail graduated, of 

 twelve black feathers, the middle feather exceeding the outer ones 

 about two inches. "After the breeding season the tufts disappear. 

 Length thirty-three inches, from tip to tip of expanded wings, fifty- 

 one inches." Tail of twelve feathers. 



Five species of this genus have been found in North America. 

 Townsend's Cormorant [P. Townsendii] violet green [P. resplen- 

 dens] inhabitants of the western side of the continent. The Florida 

 Cormorant [P. Floridanus] is a constant resident in the Floridas.— 

 The present and P. carbo are the only species that have been obser- 

 ved in this vicinity. Like the former, the Double-crested Cormo- 

 rant breeds at the extreme North, and visits the United States during 

 Winter, and at that season extends its migrations as far south as the 

 coast of Maryland." 



Its habits are similar to the preceding. 



