WATER BIRDS. 67 
This bird seems to be generally distributed over the state during the 
migrations, but is nowhere common. Most writers and observers state 
that it is a rare migrant, but speci- 
mens have been taken in almost 
every county in the state, and 
probably there are few sheets of 
water of any size within our limits 
which are not visited by this bird 
occasionally. The following records 
will give some idea of its migration: 
Saginaw River, May 29, 1896 (Eddy); 
Oakland County, May 3, 1902  Fig.8. Double-crested Cormorant. Reduced. 
(Swales); Mouth of Huron River, kGrpinal:) 
April 12, 1875 (Covert) ; Sault Ste. Marie, May 6, 1901 (Melville); Oakland 
County, October 6, 1904 (Swales); St. Mary’s River, September 26 (year?) 
(Boies); Tuscola County, October 12, 1898 (Eddy); Wyandotte, October 
25, 1904 (Barrows); Cadillac, November 13, 1897 (Selous). There are 
also records without dates from Lansing, Kalamazoo, Muskegon County, 
and Monroe. Undoubtedly more specimens are noticed in fall than in 
spring because many more people are in the field during the fall shooting, 
and also because there are actually more birds in the fall, the young of 
the year being added to those which went north in the spring. 
The distribution as given above would indicate that possibly the species 
nests about the Great Lakes, but I know of no breeding record for Michigan, 
and the nearest point of which I find a recent 
record is Shoal Lake in Northern Minnesota. Ac- 
cording to Mr. Chas. Dury it nested at St. Mary’s 
Reservoir, western Ohio, 25 or 30 years ago. The 
nests are placed sometimes on rocky ledges, some- 
times on low bushes, sometimes on trees, prefer- 
ably dead ones. They are built of sticks, roots, 
and twigs, and the eggs, from two to five, are 
greenish white with a more or less chalky shell. 
They average 2.52 by 1.59 inches. 
The bird is so seldom seen that few have ob- 
served it in life, and no one appears to be familiar 
with its habits in Michigan. It dives easily and 
constantly and remains for a long time under 
water, in this respect resembling the loons and 
grebes. It is also frequently mistaken for a 
duck, but the length of the neck should prevent 
an error of this kind. The fact that it frequently 
alights on dead trees, the points of high rocks, 
or even on the tops of boat houses and other 
buildings about the water is a point likely to 
attract attention at once and prevent its being 
mistaken for a duck. The bird is like most 
other Steganopodes in having no external nostrils; 
breathing when adult entirely through the mouth. 
This is true of all species of cormorant so far 
as known, and F. A. Lucas states (Auk XIV, 87) 
that ‘‘Probably the external nostrils close about ; 
the time the young cormorants take the water and begin to feed 
themselves.” 
Fig. 9. Foot of Double-crested 
Cormorant. (Original.) 
