DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 423 



are covered with long down of a brownish-black colour, and do not leave 

 the nest, unless they are intruded on, until they are able to fly, when 

 their parents, who long before had ceased to feed them by dropping the 

 fish into their bill, and had merely placed it on the ground near them, 

 leave them to shift for themselves. By the middle of August all these 

 birds remove southward, along Newfoundland, by Cape Breton Island, 

 and the shores of Nova Scotia, scarcely any remaining on the coast of 

 the first during winter, when indeed not many are seen farther east than 

 the Bay of Halifax. 



The fishermen and eggers never gather their eggs, they being unfit 

 for being eaten by any other animals than Gulls or Jagers ; but they 

 commit great havock among the young, which they salt for food or bait. 

 The old birds are too shy to be killed in great numbers, otherwise their 

 feathers, although they smell strongly of fish, might be turned to accovmt. 

 I have never eaten Cormorant's flesh, and intend to refrain from tasting 

 it until nothing better can be procured. 



The flight of this species is strong and well sustained, although not 

 so rapid as that of the Florida Cormorant. It sails at times in a beauti- 

 ful manner, and at a great height above the waters. Like other species, 

 the Double-crested Cormorants are fond of sunning themselves, with their 

 wings spread out. They walk awkwardly, and cannot run without the 

 aid of their wings. In order to arise from the water, in which they sink 

 so as nearly to be covered when swimming, they are obliged to run and 

 beat the surface for many yards, before they get fairly on wing. Their 

 food consists of shrimps, lents, capelings, codlings, and other fishes, scarce- 

 ly any kind coming amiss unless too strong or of too great a size. Of 

 the codlings especially they devour vast numbers, they being in astonish- 

 ing shoals on the coast of Labrador at the time when the Cormorants 

 are breeding, and indeed remaining until the departure of the birds, when 

 they retire to deeper water. I never saw a Cormorant plunge from the 

 air after its prey, but should be much gratified by such a sight, which, 

 if we trust compilers, is nothing uncommon ; nor have I ever seen a bird 

 of this species perched on any thing higher than the top of the low island 

 on which the nest is placed, none having been observed by me on any of 

 the high rocks on which the common species breeds in America. 



I have given the figure of a beautiful male in its perfect spring plu- 

 mage. This is probably the only representation of the bird yet presented 

 to the public, and the same remark applies to the Florida Cormorant. 



