48 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Genus Phalacrocorax (Briss.) 



Represented in our State by two closely allied forms differing only in size and 

 in time of occurrence. 



34. Phalacrocorax auritus auritus (Swains.). DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMO- 

 RANT. 



Ads. in breeding plumage. Head, neck, rump and underparts glossy black; upper back, 

 scapulars, and wing-coverts light grayish brown, each feather margined with glossy black; 

 tail black, composed of twelve feathers; a tuft of black feathers on either side of the head; a few 

 white ones over the eye. Ads. in winter. Similar, but without tufts on the head. Im. Top 

 of the head and back of the neck blackish brown; upper back, scapulars, and wing coverts 

 brownish gray, each feather margined with black; rump glossy black; sides of the head and 

 foreneck grayish white, whiter on the breast and changing gradually to black on the lower 

 belly. L., 30.00; W., 12.50; T., 6.20; B., 2.30. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. Eastern North America, breeding from Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan northward; 

 winters from North Carolina southward to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. 



Range in North Carolina. Coastal region in winter; occasionally inland. 



FIG. 28. DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 



These are the common cormorants on our coast in winter, where they are often 

 seen perched on stakes set by the fishermen to hold their nets or to mark the various 

 channels through the shallow sounds. As evening comes they congregate in flocks 

 of from ten to forty individuals, and in solid ranks go flying low over the water 

 to some favorite "lump" of shell, or small sandy island, on which to roost. One 

 evening early in April, 1898, Pearson dug a hole in the shells of a miniature island 

 in Wysocking Bay, Hyde County, where, lying concealed, he was enabled to watch 

 unobserved the hundreds of cormorants which came there to roost. Without excep- 

 tion the flocks all pitched in the water a short distance away, and later swam 

 leisurely ashore. Cormorants are much disliked by fishermen, who declare that the 

 birds enter their pound-nets and prey upon the valuable fish. 



