DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 421 



While with us, the Double- crested Cormorants are seen flying in long 

 lines, sometimes forming angles, and passing low over the water, at no 

 great distance from the shore. They enter our large bays, rivers and 

 creeks, going up as far as the tide, but are seldom or never seen fishing 

 in fresh-water. Their stay along the Middle Districts continues from the 

 beginning of October to the middle of April ; farther east they are seen 

 a month earlier, and disappear a fortnight later. A good number breed 

 on the Seal Islands off the Bay of Fundy, but the greater part return to 

 Labrador and Baffin's Bay, where Dr Richardson found this species. 

 To that excellent man and intrepid traveller, we are indebted, among 

 other valuable fruits of his labours, for the first good description of this 

 bird. From his account and the information which I have received from 

 Captain James Clark Ross, I believe that it does not go much farther 

 north than the place where it was observed by the first mentioned traveller ; 

 and no Cormorants were seen during the late voyage to the Arctic circle. 

 It is probable that neither the Double-crested nor the Florida Cormorants 

 occur in any part of Europe ; at least, if they have been described as 

 birds of that quarter of the globe, I can find no account sufficiently cor- 

 rect to enable me to recognise them. 



A few miles from one of the entrances of the Harbour of Whapatiguan, 

 is a low and flat island about a mile in length, on which the present species 

 breeds. As we sailed past it, we could easily observe the birds on their 

 nests, all over the rock, which was completely white- washed with their ex- 

 crement, that emitted a disagreeable odour to a great distance. I had seen 

 several islands near the Harbour of Great Macatina inhabited by these 

 Cormorants, but being anxious to complete the examination of one sub- 

 ject at a time, and knowing that we should see a greater number as we 

 approach the Straits of BeUe Isle, I put off the investigation until I should 

 have leisure to prosecute it satisfactorily. 



My son, accompanied by the captain and four sailors, sailed for Cor- 

 morant Island, on which, however, they found great difficulty in landing, 

 for the surf broke so fearfully as to call into requisition all the judgment 

 and good management of Mr Emery. The moment they landed, al- 

 most all the birds of the island rose on wing, darkening the air, and 

 alighted at some distance on the water in large bodies. They were so shy 

 that it was not without considerable difficulty that ten of them were ob- 

 tained. At the first shot, hundreds of young ones scrambled out of their 

 nests, and huddled together in packs of fifteen or twenty. When the men 



