392 FLORIDA CORMORANT. 



should in all probability have named it Cormorant River. While we were 

 at anchor near its mouth, they passed close to us in long single files almost 

 continually, and, on reaching the sea, bore away towards the south along 

 the shores. 



On the Mississippi, in the month of October, when the temperature is 

 considerably lower than in the Floridas, you see these birds during the 

 day standing in their usual inclined position, on the sawyers and planters, 

 as if resting there — so at least was the case in the autumn of 1820, — or on 

 the dead branches of trees along the shores. In cloudy days they sail- 

 ed high in the air, and in wide circles, after which, as if aware of cold 

 weather being at hand, they swiftly followed in long lines the meandering 

 course of the stream, at a considerable elevation. AVhile sailing aloft, 

 they frequently uttered a note not unlike that of the raven in similar cir- 

 cumstances. When approached while standing on a planter, instead of 

 taking to wing at once, although elevated several feet above the water, 

 they prefer plunging first into the stream, when they almost instantly rise 

 to the surface, paddle with their feet, and beat with their wings for twenty 

 or thirty yards, and then rise into the air. Now and then, when of a 

 sudden the weather becomes cold at night, you see them at early dawn 

 join in numbers of fifty or perhaps a hundred, rise high in the air, arrange 

 themselves in angular double files, and fly swiftly southward. 



When in fresh water streams they fish principally in the eddies, and 

 as soon as one of them is depopulated, or proves unworthy of their far- 

 ther search, they rise and fly about a foot above the surface to another 

 place, where they continue to fish. In the inner lakes of the Floridas 

 they fish at random any where, and this is equally the case around the 

 Keys, and on the bays and inlets along the coast. In fine calm weather, 

 when the sun is pouring down a flood of light and heat, the Cormorants 

 in flocks betake themselves to some clean sand-bar or rocky isle, or alight 

 on trees, where they spread out their wings, and bask at times for hours, 

 in the manner of Vultures and Pelicans. 



The Florida Cormorant, hke all the other species with which I am 

 acquainted, swims deep, and dives with great expertness, so that it is al- 

 most useless to follow one when wounded, unless it has been greatly in- 

 jured. On seeing an enemy approach, it first beats the water with its 

 wings, as if in play, or as it would do if washing itself, raises both wings 

 for a minute or more, then paddles off, and takes to wing. When on a 



