rHALACKOCOliAGIDyE - THE COKMORANTS — niALACROCORAX. 



149 



As evidence that the Cormorant possesses considerable intelligence, and that it 

 is easily reconciled to confinement, Montagu gives an account of one which soon 

 became so tame and attached to its owner that it seemed never to be so happy as 

 when permitted to remain by his side. Sir Kobert S. Adair informed Yarrell that 

 he was eye-witness to a pair of Cormorants feeding and bringing up a nest of liavens 

 — whose natural parents had been killed — and he noticed that they kept the young 

 birds well supplied with lish. 



This species formerly bred at several points on the New England, coast, from 

 Nahant northward ; but it has long since been driven away, although a few of these 

 birds still breed on rocky cliffs in Frenchman's Bay and in the Bay of Fundy. 

 During the winter and in the fall they are met with in their migrations along the 

 soa-eoast from Maine to the Delaware, and even still farther south. 



Audubon found this Cormorant breeding on the rocky coast of Labrador. The 

 nests were placed on the highest shelves of the precipitous rocks fronting the water, 

 and were formed of a quantity of small sticks, matted in a rude way with a quantity 

 of weeds and mosses, having a thickness of from four to twelve or more inches. The 

 same nests were evidently occupied for several years in succession. These nests 

 varied greatly in their size, and some were crowded close together on the same shelf ; 

 but they were generally placed at some distance from each other. The eggs were 

 usually three or four in number. 



In the summer of 18G0 — twenty-seven years after Audubon's visit — Dr. Bryant 

 examined the same cliffs, on the south side of the rocky wall which bounds the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, at Wapitaguan, where he found the nests built precisely as described 

 by Audubon, and placed wherever room could be found for them. On the 2Gth of 

 June some contained half-grown young, and others were but just completed. The 

 full number of eggs was four. In shape they were more regular than the Florida, 

 but less so than the Double-crested, Cormorants. The calcareous coating of the egg 

 is softer than in the Jioridanus, and can readily be rubbed off with the fingers. In 

 some specimens this is quite thick, and is deposited in irregidar sheets or lumps. 

 The birds were very tame, and returned to their nests as soon as he moved from the 

 s|)ot. On alighting on the sides of the precipice they cling to it with their tail and 

 claAvs, in the manner of Swifts or "Woodpeckers ; and before alighting they almost 

 always swooped down to very near the surface of the water, and then rose in a curved 

 line to the surface of the cliff, without moving their wings, and almost with the reg- 

 ularity of a pendulum. He estimated the number of this species breeding on these 

 cliffs at from four to five thousand. Dr. Bryant gives the measurement of four eggs, 

 as characteristic; of their general size and shape, as follows : 2.G5 by 1.49 inches ; 

 2.3i) by 1.49; 2.35 by l.GO; 2.52 by 1.29. 



Phalacrocoraz dilophna 



a. Dilophus. TEE COMMON DOUBLE-CBEBTBD COBMOBANT. 



Pehcanus (Carbo) dilophus, Sw. & Rich. F. B. A. 11. 1831, 473. 



Pluilacrocorax dilophus, Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 483. — Aud. Orn. Biog. III. 1835, 420; V. 1839, 



629, pi. 257 ; Synop. 1839, 302 ; B. Am. VI. 1844, 423, pi. 416. — RiDOW. Noin. N. Am. B. 



1881, no. 643. — CouES, 2d Check List, 1882, no. 751. 

 Graculus dilophus, Guay, Gen. B. HI. 1849. — Baiiid, B. N. Am. 1858, 877 ; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, 



no. 623. — COUES, Key, 1872, 303 ; Clieck List, 1873, no. 530. 

 Oramlm dilophus a. dilophus, Coues, B. N. W. 1874, 587. 



