28 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



ORDER STEGANOPODES. TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS. 

 FAMILY PHALACROCORACHXflS. CORMORANTS. 



CORMORANTS.* 



These birds are found more or less abundantly in nearly all parts of the world. 

 About twenty-five species, it is stated, are known to science. According to different 

 writers we have in North America eleven or twelve kinds of these curious birds. A 

 single species is known to occur in Pennsylvania. Although most numerous on the 

 sea-coast, many of them visit lakes and large rivers in the interior. They are of a 

 gregarious nature, and frequently great numbers are observed together, especially 

 when breeding. Cormorants in company with Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) 

 and Water Turkeys ( Anhinga anhinga) breed in considerable numbers on large 

 lakes in the interior of Florida. The rather bulky nests are constructed principally 

 of sticks and are built on high rocky ledges, or on trees and thick bushes ; eggs, 

 two to five in number, are a pale greenish-blue color, overlaid with a yellowish- 

 white chalky crust. The Chinese train Cormorants to catch fish for the market. 

 The prudent Chinaman knowing the voracious nature of his feathered servant places 

 a band or close-fitting collar about the bird's neck before it starts from its perch in 

 search of the finny tribe. Cormorants subsist almost entirely on fish ; they are good 

 swimmers, expert divers, but walk poorly. In these birds the body is heavy, the 

 neck long, the long, stiff tail is composed of 12 or 14 feathers, and the four long toes 

 are all connected by webs. All have a leathery sack at the base of the lower 

 mandible. 



GENUS PHALACROCORAX BRISSON. 

 Phalacrocorax dilophus (Sw. & RICH.). 



Double-crested Cormorant. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Adult. Bill rather long, stout and slightly tapering ; upper mandible strongly 

 hooked and acute ; gular sac naked ; nostrils not visible ; tail 12 feathers. Length 

 about 30 inches ; extent about 48 inches ; upper mandible brownish above and yel- 

 lowish on sides ; lower, mainly yellow ; naked skin about the eyes and gular pouch 

 orange-yellow ; inside of mouth black ; iris green ; legsandfeet black. Head, neck, 

 lower part of back, rump and under parts giossy greenish-black ; upper portion of 

 back and wings brownish-black, with many feathers bordered with black ; curly 

 black tufts on sides of head back of eye ; tail black. Specimen taken in the fall has 

 no lateral crests ; the head and neck brownish-black and the body above and below 

 is mainly black, with a faint greenish-gloss. 



Habitat. Eastern coast of North America, breeding from the Bay of Fundy 

 northward ; southward in the interior to the great lakes and Wisconsin. 



The only locality in this state where the Double-crested Cormorant 

 has been observed appears to be on the lake shore in Erie county, where 

 Messrs. George B. Sennett and Mr. James Thompson, both residing- in 

 Erie city, inform me it occurs as a somewhat rare and irregular visitor 

 late in the fall or early winter. October 26, 1889, when shooting ducks 

 on the " peninsula " near Erie city, Mr. James Thompson and a com- 



* In the first edition of the Birds of Pennsylvania, page 232, the Cormorant (P. carbo) was given as a 

 " very rare, or accidental winter visitor. " and that Mr. H. B. Graves had obtained one in Berks county. 

 1 have recently ascertained that the bird referred to was not captured in Berks county or in Pennsylvania. 



