BIRDS OF NEW YORK 171 



Phalacrocorax auritus (Lesson) 



Double-crested Cormorant 



Plate 



Carbo auritus Lesson. Traits d'Ornithologie. 1831. p. 605 

 Phalacrocorax dilophus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 293, fig. 



267, 268 



A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2 1895. No. 120 

 auri'tus, Lat., eared 



Description. Breeding plumage: Mostly glossy black, the back and 

 wing coverts coppery gray edged with black ; a tuft of curly black feathers 

 on each side of the head ; a few white filaments over the eye ; lores and pouch 

 orange; eyelids and mouth deep blue; iris green; feet black. Winter: No 

 crest; eyelids dull. Immature: Mostly grayish brown, blackish on nimp, 

 sides and lower belly ; throat and breast brownish white ; gular sack and base 

 of bill yellowish. Tail feathers 12. 



Length 30-34 inches; extent 50; wing 12-13; tail 6-7; bill 2.3-2.5; 

 gape 3.5; tarsus 2.1. 



This is by far the commonest of the order Steganopodes in our State. 

 It is a common transient visitant on Long Island in April and May (April 

 3 to May 23 and June 29) returning from the north August 12 to September 

 17, and last seen October 26 to November 5. It is also found on the Great 

 Lakes and other inland waters as an uncommon migrant. Verdi Burtch 

 reports a specimen from Branchport, Yates co., August 14, 1886, but most 

 of the records for the interior are late in the season, as follows: Onondaga 

 lake, November 30, 1865; Cayuga lake, November 16, 1875; Lansingburg, 

 November 13, 1879; Corn wall -on -the-Hudson, October 10, 1883 and Novem- 

 ber 4, 1889; Troy, September 21, 1888; Buffalo, October 11, and November 

 3, 1894; Canandaigua, November 7, 1899; Cayuga lake, September 29, 1905; 

 Buffalo, October 24, 1907; Erie, Pa., October 26-December 14 (Todd). 

 There are only two spring records from the interior. Sing Sing, June 22, 

 1876 (Fisher); Crane lake. May 17, 1897 (Taylor). 



Cormorants are gregarious in habit, and in flight resemble the larger 

 ducks, especially the mergansers. They feed on fish, which they take by 

 diving after them from the surface of the water, or from a low perch. They 

 often alight on large trees near the water, when their peculiar shape and 



