GRACULID^, CORMORANTS. GEN. 275. 303 



5' ^ Douhle-crested Cormorant. Glossy greeuish-black ; featliers of the back 

 and "wiDgs coppery-gray, black-shafted, black-edged ; adult with curly black 

 lateral crests, aud in the breeding season other filamentous white ones, over 

 the eyes and along the sides of the neck ; white flank-patch not observed in 

 the specimens examined, but probably occurring ; gular sac and lores orange. 

 Length 30-33 inches ; wing 12 or more ; tail 6 or more ; bill along gape 

 3 J ; tarsus a little over 2. Young plain dark brown, paler or grayish 

 (even white on the breast) below, without head-plumes. N. Am., at large, 

 the commonest species. Sw. and Eich., F. B.-A. ii, 473; Nutt., ii, 483; 

 AuD., vi, 423, pi. 416 ; Lawr. in Bd., 877 dilopiius. 



Oi^ Var. FLOEiDAsns. Florida Cormorant. Similar, smaller (wing 12 or less ; tail 

 6 or^less ; tarsus a little under 2) , but bill as large if not larger ; gape nearly 4. 

 The plumage is exactlj^ the same, excepting, probabl}', that white plumes are not 

 developed. There are said to be certain differences in the life-colors of the bills 

 (blue instead of yellow on under mandible and edges of upper — Auclubon), but 

 none show in my specimens. This is simply a localized southern race of dilophus, 

 smaller in general dimensions, with relatively larger bill, as usual in such cases ; the 

 sac seems to be more extensively denuded. Resident on the Floridan and Gulf 

 coast, breeding by thousands on the mangrove bushes ; in summer, ranging up the 

 Mississippi valley to Ohio {A^ldubon) and along the coast to North Carolina {Cones). 

 Ann., vi, 430, pi. 417; Lawr. in Bd., 879. 



A J I Mexican Cormorant. Resembling the last; lustre more intense, rather 

 violet-purplish than green ; long filamentous white feathers on head and 

 neck (but no definite black lateral crests?) ; sac orange, wldte-edged. 

 Small; length about 24; wing about 10; tail 6, thus relatively long; tarsus 

 under 2 ; gape of bill under 3. The sac is not strongly convex in outline 

 behind, the feathers passing across in a straight or even convex line. 

 Central America and West Indies ; Texas ; up the Mississippi to Illinois 

 {Ridgivay) . Brandt, /. c. 56; Lawr. in Bd., 879. . . . mexicanus. 



■j- 1 Gular sac heart-shaped behind, owing to a narrow pointed forward extension 

 of the feathers on the middle line. 



^" 5 '- 'Brandt's Cormorant. Deep lustrous green, changing to violet or steel-blue 

 on the neck, the back j^roper like the nnder parts, but the scapulars and wing 

 coverts showing narrow dark edgings of the individual feathers (much less 

 conspicuous than in any of the foregoing species : nothing of the sort is seen in 

 any of the following ones). 8ac dark blue, surrounded by a gorget of favm- 

 colored or mouse-brown plumage, largel}' naked, the feathers extending on it 

 little if any in advance of those on the lower mandible. White filamentous 

 plumes, 2 inches or more long, straight and stiffish, spring in a series down 

 each side of the neck ; a few others are irregularly scattered over the back 

 of the neck ; many others, still longer, grow on the upper part of the back. 

 No black crests, nor Avhite flank-patch, observed. Wing nearly 12 ; tail 

 scarcely or not 6, thus relatively very short ; bill along culmen 2| ; tarsus 2 J. 

 Does not particularly resemble any other species here described. Young : 

 blackish-brown, rustier below, the belly grayish ; scapulars and wing coverts 



