82 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



Their weapon of defense is the bill, which they can use very 

 effectively. One bit a member of our party on the breast, 

 cutting through his shirt and drawing considerable blood. A 

 number were carried alive in sacks from Narborough to Tagus 

 Cove. Holes were cut in the sacks, allowing their heads and 

 necks to protrude ; each sack became a veritable Hydra. When 

 they were not biting each other in their rage, they were mak- 

 ing vicious passes at us with their long snake-like necks. At 

 the nest, both birds were usually loyal to each other, and put 

 up a good fight against the intruder. Once or twice the mate 

 of a bird at the nest was observed to come out of the water 

 and climb laboriously up to its nest, and, finding an enemy 

 there, valiantly help to defend it. 



These cormorants were seen swallowing fish upon coming 

 to the surface after a dive. An eel fourteen inches long was 

 taken from the gullet of one bird. 



In sleeping, they throw the body forward slightly from the 

 usual upright position, and place the head and neck over the 

 shoulder, thrusting the bill down the side of the body under 

 the secondaries. One of the most ridiculous sights I saw in 

 the Galapagos Islands was one of these clumsy creatures 

 scratching its head. Balancing itself on one foot, it care- 

 fully lowered its head so that it could reach it with its free 

 foot, and proceeded very solemnly to scratch for perhaps half 

 a minute. 



When on a visit to southeastern Narborough on March 22, a 

 bird was observed pursuing another about a small tidal lagoon. 

 Perhaps this was a case, similar to that mentioned by Messrs. 

 Snodgrass and Heller,^ of a young bird pursuing an adult 

 for food, although in this instance it was not successful. 

 They were heard to utter two or three harsh croaking notes. 



On April 16th at Banks Bay, several were seen, and two 

 pairs were found with nests without eggs situated at an 

 elevation of about ten feet in a sandy place just back of 

 the black lava of the shore. There were three nests about 

 three feet apart, one an old one, and all placed close to a 

 small cactus. A fourth was seen some fifty yards away, also 

 in the sand. The nests with birds at hand were mere depres- 



iProc. Wash. Acad. Sci., v. 5, p. 250. 



