THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 3 



generally incorrectly called the Common Cormorant. This 

 species probably does occur but is not common. We examined 

 many hundred birds at comparatively close range about Perce" 

 and Gaspe basin but did not detect any that could be mistaken 

 for it, and it is not likely that they breed in the immediate 

 neighbourhood . 



The Double-crested Cormorant is a rather large bird, com- 

 paring favourably in this respect with a good sized domestic 

 duck, but slimmer in build and more graceful in outline. Sitting 

 in the water it has quite a loon-like appearance both in silhouette 

 and action. The adult is solid black with green reflections over 

 the most of the body plumage. The back feathers are vaguely 

 margined with brown, making each feather appear to stand out 

 as if in relief. Spaces about the eyes, and at the base of the 

 bill, and a small though well developed gullar or throat pouch 

 are bare of feathers and coloured bright orange. The eyes are 

 green with purple edges to the lids and the interior of the mouth 

 is a brilliant, almost cobalt, blue. The younger birds are dull 

 brown, a little lighter below, and the facial colours much re- 

 duced in brightness. In the young of the year these bare patches 

 are flesh pink with dull cloudings, but every gradation in 

 colour of both naked and feathered parts appears at appropriate 

 ages. 



At Perc6 the cormorants nest only on the top of Perc6 

 rock. That great isolated fragment standing in the sea just 

 off the salient point of the coast forms an ideal nesting place for 

 them and the Herring gulls with whom they share the available 

 space. The Rock, 2,100 feet long, about 80 feet wide on top, 

 and nearly 300 in height, with smooth, sheer, unscalable sides, 

 pierced through with its giant natural arch, is too well known to 

 demand more than general remark here. The top is flat, gently 

 undulating, and given up entirely to the bird association before 

 mentioned. From a distance, the top of the rock appears in 

 summer to be covered with sparkling frost or snow; but a closer 

 inspection, from Mount Joli on the mainland, 800 feet or so away, 

 resolves this frosting into white bodies of gulls and ground 

 plastered with guano. Everything is white, not a blade of grass 

 shows. Slight mounds here and there with birds perched on top 



