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THE FLORIDA CORMORANT. 



Phalacrocorax floridanus. 



PLATE CCLII. Male. 



Few birds inhabiting the United States are so little known, or have 

 been so incorrectly described, as the Cormorants. Nay even some of the 

 European species of this genus are yet not well understood, so imperfectly 

 have they been studied by writers who, although they have defined their 

 forms, have not sufBciently studied them in the places to which they re- 

 sort during the breeding season. Of the three species of which I shall 

 speak in this volume, only one has been accurately described. I allude 

 to the Double-crested Cormorant, P. dilophus, which was met with by the 

 intrepid Dr Richardson in the course of his Arctic journeys, and intro- 

 duced to the scientific world in the Fauna Boreah-Americana, but with- 

 out a figure, a circumstance to be regretted, as good representations of 

 birds are fully as necessary as good descriptions. When the student has 

 perused both, he cannot fail to recognise the species in whatever part of 

 the world he may afterwards meet with it. 



Our Cormorants are by no means great travellers, although they all 

 migrate more or less at particular seasons. The three species to which 

 only I shall at present allude, are each restricted to a comparatively small 

 portion of North America. The Large Cormorant, P. Carbo, rarely goes 

 farther north than the southern coast of Labrador, and is seldom seen as 

 far south as the Bay of New York. The Double-crested, P. dilophus, 

 which is next in size, proceeds farther in both directions, having been met 

 with by Dr Richardson, although my amiable friend Captain James 

 Clark Ross, R. N. does not mention having seen any birds of this 

 family in the course of his voyages in the arctic seas. It breeds in great 

 numbers in Labrador, and during winter proceeds along our eastern coasts 

 sometimes as far as Charleston in South Carolina. The Florida Cormo- 

 rant, P. floridanus, is a constant resident in the southern parts of the 

 country from which il derives its name, and is more especially abundant 

 there in early spring and summer, breeding on the keys and along the 

 salt-water inlets of the southern extremity of the peninsula, from wliich 

 considerable numbers are now known to visit the waters of the Mississippi 



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