THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 11 



had been fishing for at least an hour and a half, but its crop as 

 well as those of the other two mentioned were empty. The 

 rarity of the species in river waters shows that these accidental 

 occurrences before cited must be disregarded in considering the 

 economic damage done by cormorants to salmon. 



With the exception, then, of a few wandering birds, the cor- 

 morants feed either along the sea coast as at Perce or in the tidal 

 mouths of the rivers. We collected some thirty stomachs from 

 such localities, but none of them contained salmonoid remains. 

 The food contents were mostly capelin, flounder, herring, and an 

 occasional eel and torn cod. See table of stomach contents, 

 page 15. 



Of the thirty-two stomachs examined, five were empty, 

 one so nearly so as to make the contents unrecognizable, and 

 two were from nestlings with contents regurgitated from the 

 parents throat, and, having been subject to double digestive 

 action, were not recognizable. 



Of the remaining twenty- five, sixteen contained sculpins; 

 five herring; one each capelin and eel; and two torn cod or 

 allied fish. Nearly all had ascaris and other parasitical remains. 

 The evidence indicates that these were incidentally obtained 

 from the flesh of the original hosts. In many stomachs there 

 were fragments of eel-grass, crustaceans, molluscs, and pebbles, 

 but in small quantities and evidently derived from the stomachs 

 of the prey or taken accidentally with it. 



It will be seen from this that the cormorants in the tidal 

 mouths, at least during the season of our work, July and August, 

 do little, if any, appreciable damage to the salmon. It yet 

 remains to be proved that they are equally harmless at other 

 seasons though, as will be shown from later considerations, the 

 onus of the proof rests with the prosecution. 



On the coast, about Perce, the cormorants certainly do the 

 fishermen a certain amount of injury. It is not the salmon in- 

 dustries that are affected here but the cod-fishing. During a 

 large part of the season the codfishers rely altogether upon her- 

 ring for bait and for this purpose the herring nets are set nightly. 

 When these fish are abundant the toll taken by cormorants is not 

 noticeable, but when, as regularly occurs, herring are scarce, 



