6 MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 13. 



obvious reluctance of cormorants to cross land, and in the 

 absence of other evidence, we consider that most, if not all, 

 the cormorants seen about Gaspe are of the local population 

 and not intrusives from other grounds. 



Through the day practically all the cormorants, not brooding 

 eggs or young, are found in the estuaries of the river mouths 

 emptying into the bay. A few are occasionally seen on the 

 waters of the outer harbour but they are only occasional in 

 proportion to those regularly seen on the inner basin. Gaspe 

 basin is the enlarged mouth of the York river separated from 

 the waters of Gaspe bay by a narrow channel, a few hundred 

 yards across. Within this narrow mouth it gradually widens to 

 over a mile in width where, towards its head, it spreads over 

 flat, marshy, island-filled shallows gradually narrowing to the 

 river mouth proper some miles up. These wide tidal areas are 

 just awash at low tide. At high tide they are covered by 2 or 

 3 feet of water. The bottom is mud well grown with eel grass. 

 Along one side of the channel extends a long row of stout piles, 

 retaining booms for the guidance of pulp logs, that are floated 

 down stream during the freshets. Equally spaced along these 

 piles are firm, stone-filled cribs to better withstand the pressure 

 of flood and ice. In the morning as soon as the sun is well up the 

 cormorants fly in through the narrow channel separating the basin 

 from the bay, their numbers increasing until about nine o'clock 

 when most of the birds are to be found fishing in the shallow 

 water at the head of the basin. On first coming in they alight in 

 the water, look about a minute, and then disappear with an easy 

 gliding dive. They generally remain under the water for about 

 a minute. If they have been successful in their fishing, their 

 prey can be easily seen when they reappear. They catch 

 a fish crossways and it takes a little manipulation and sundry 

 jerks of the head to get it placed properly in the mouth; then 

 there is an upward flirt of the bill and the fish is swallowed. A 

 few gulps are given and the bird is ready to repeat the operation. 

 When temporarily satisfied, the cormorants betake themselves 

 to any near-by floating object or to the boom logs and piles lining 

 the way. Sometimes every pile for half a mile or so acts as 

 pedestal to an ebony black cormorant posing statuesquely on 



