THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 7 



or draped over the top, with wings half raised or hanging as if 

 drying in the sun. I suspect that the cormorant is deficient in 

 oily matter with which to annoint its feathers for it does not 

 seem to be as perfectly adapted to aquatic conditions as most 

 other water birds. Like its near relative, the Anhinga, which 

 has a similar habit, it seems to find it necessary to dry its plumage 

 after prolonged submersion. At such times it is a most awkward 

 and ungainly sight, sitting with relaxed wings and body, limp 

 and flaccid as a garment hung on a bush to dry. 



The cormorants lay from 3 to 4 eggs, but there is a great 

 mortality in the early stages of the nestlings. The eggs hatch 

 one by one at considerable intervals of time and the eldest is a 

 large strapping youngster before the youngest is out of the shell 

 and, in fact, would hardly be supposed to belong to the same 

 brood. It is large and strong and both requires and is able to 

 take much more than its proper proportion of the food delivered ; 

 hence the disparity of size tends to increase rather than diminish 

 as the brood develops. This undue development of one at the 

 expense of the others was perfectly obvious in all the nests ob- 

 served. The larger nestlings bully and badger their weaker 

 brothers and sisters unmercifully, picking and worrying them 

 continually. This probably helps to explain the fact that, as 

 the chicks increase in age, there are invariably fewer in the nest 

 until, in the latest stages observed, we did not see a 

 nest that contained more than one bird. As a certain percentage 

 of birds lose their entire brood in one way or another, I do not 

 think that, on an average, a pair raises to adolesence more than 

 one nestling each season. The fact, that, in spite of their slow 

 rate of reproduction, the species is apparently increasing, 

 points to the cormorant being a remarkably hardy bird, well 

 adapted to its conditions, probably of long life, and without 

 dangerous enemies. Throughout the day cormorants can be 

 seen passing in and out of the basin, but in the afternoon about 

 three or four o'clock the decided movement is outward to the 

 rookeries and by sun-down the inner waters are deserted. 



On July 18 I posted myself in the little pavilion opposite 

 the Baker house, overlooking the narrow strait separating the 

 basin from the outer bay, and counted the cormorants passing. 



