7748 * Birds. 



pleasure of visiting, for the first time, a breeding-place of this species. 

 It was situated on the south side of the rocky wall that bounds the 

 gulf at Wapitaguan, and is probably much the same as it was twenty- 

 seven years ago at the time of Audubon's visit; it extends for nearly 

 half a mile along the face of the cliff, which is there from a hundred 

 to a hundred and fifty feet in height, not perfectly vertical, but falling 

 back slightly towards the land as it rises. Although not by any means 

 easy of access, it is yet much less dangerous than Gannet Rock, as 

 the smallest projection can be depended on, and the rough surface of 

 the granite enables one to crawl over it without fear of slipping. As 

 the eggs are not considered worth collecting, and it requires a good 

 deal of time and patience to ascend the precipice, the birds had not, I 

 think, been disturbed before my visit. The nests were built precisely 

 as described by Audubon, and placed wherever there was any room 

 for them. Some of them contained half-grown young, and others 

 were but just finished, but by far the larger number either young or 

 eggs that were nearly hatched. I did not see a siugle bird that had 

 more than the merest trace of the long white feathers of the neck and 

 thighs. The full number of eggs is four, and, excepting when first 

 laid, they are filthy in the extreme. In shape they are more regular 

 than in the Florida cormorants, but less so than in the doublecrested, 

 the only species of this genus with whose eggs I am sufficiently 

 acquainted to properly compare them. The calcareous coating of this 

 egg, as also of that of the P. dilophus, is much softer than that of the 

 P. floridanus, and can readily be rubbed off with the fingers ; in some 

 specimens it is quite thick, and is frequently deposited in irregular 

 sheets, or even lumps. The birds were very tame, and, though they 

 flew off on our approach, returned to their nests the moment we 

 moved to another spot. On alighting on the sides of the precipice 

 they cling to it with their tail and claws, much like swifts or wood- 

 peckers, and before alighting almost always swooped down nearly to 

 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 regularity 

 of a pendulum. Though these birds breed on many other points on 

 the coast, I did not find them in as large numbers anywhere else. 

 The number at Wapitaguan was from 4000 to 5000. 



Doublecrested Cormorant {P. dilophus). This species, so closely 

 resembling the Florida cormorant, I found breeding only at one 

 place, Wapitaguan ; it was not .so abundant as the P. carbo, being in 

 the proportion of about one of tlje present to four of the other. The 

 northerly part of the breeding-place was occupied exclusively by the 



