DOUBLE-CRESTED COEMOEANT. 543 



and is the only specimen I have seen in spring plumage. In the fall of 

 1861 quite a large flock made their appearance in this vicinity, of which 

 about a dozen were captured, one which is now preserved in the museum 

 of Starling Medical College. One morning, during the time of their visit, 

 I laid behind a bank of the Scioto river near this city, waiting the 

 rising of a heavy fog, to shoot some Teal who were heard feeding in the 

 shallows. The favorable moment came and both barrels were discharged. 

 Apparently from the smoke of my gun, but really from the bank below 

 its muzzle, sprang three of these birds, enlarged to colossal size by the 

 deceptive agency of the fog. I was greatly astonished. 



Four or five years since a specimen was taken in Fairfield county, near 

 the Licking Reservoir, which was preserved by Dr. Jasper, of this city. 

 Mr. Langdon gives it as an occasional migrant on the Ohio, and in Sum- 

 mer Birds says, " one or two instances of the occurrence of this speeies in 

 summer are noted by Mr. Porter" (Northern Ohio). 



Mr. H. E. Chubb writes me, under date of February 7th, 1881, concern- 

 ing a specimen recently captured, as follows : 



" The specimen I had alive was shot and oaptnred in Sandusky Bay. I do not know 

 whether there were others with It or not. One shot struck it in the neck, aad it was 

 then chased down by men in a boat. I could hardly get it to eat at first, but before I 

 had it a week it would follow me all over the room for a fish, and took its three pounds 

 of fish a day with great relish." 



The nest of the Pelican is said to be simply a low mound of dirt scraped 

 together by the bird. A single egg is the complement. 



FAMILY GRACULIDJE. THE CORMORANTS. 



Bill about as long as head, stout, straight, scarcely tapering, strongly hooked. Nos- 

 trils abortive. Gular sac moderate, but evident; mostly naked. Wings short. Tail 

 large, fan-shaped, scansorial, of twelve to fourteen broad stiff feathers exposed to the 

 base. Legs inserted far behind centre of equilibrium. 



Genus GRA.CULUS. LinnsBus. 

 With the characters of the family. 



Gbaculus dilophus (Sw.) Gray. 



JDotible-crested Cormorant. 



GrcuMlus dilophus, Whbaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Kep. for 1874, d75 ; Ee- 

 print, 1875, 15.— Langdon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 18. 



Pelecanus {Carta) dilophus, Swainson and Richardson. Pn. Bor.-Am., ii, 1831, 473. 

 Graculua diUphua, Gkat, Gen. of Birds, iii, 1849. 



Tail of twelve feathers ; gular sac convex or nearly straight-edged behind. Glossy 

 greenish-black ; feathers of the back and wings coppery-gray, black- shafted, black- 

 edged ; adult with curly black lateral crests, and in the breeding season other filamen- 



