Double-crested Cormorant 27 
A large and cosmopolitan genus of about forty species, five in the 
United States. 
Key or THE SPECIES. 
a. Larger, wing over 110; no white gorget. P. auritus, p. 27. 
b. Smaller, wing under 11:0. a white gorget along the edge of 
the gular sac in the breeding plumage. 
P. v. mexicanus, p. 28. 
Double-crested Cormorant. Phalacrocorax auritus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 120—Colorado Records—Ridgway 79, p. 234 
(P. dilophus) ; H. G. Smith 86, p. 285; 96, p. 48; Morrison 89, p. 148; 
Cooke 97, pp. 52, 156; Felger 09, p. 279. 
Description. Adult—Plumage glossy greenish-black, the feathers 
of the scapulars and wings slaty with black borders ; a few long curly 
feathers above and behind the eye form a double crest; tail of twelve 
feathers ; iris green, eyelids blue, bill yellow, darker along the culmen ; 
gular sac orange and convex in shape posteriorly, feet dull black. 
Length about 32; wing 12:0; tail 6:0; culmen 2°10; tarsus 2-20. 
The crests are lost in the winter and the eyelids are not so blue; 
young birds are dark brown, paling on the throat and breast to almost 
white. 
Distribution.—The greater part of North America on the coast and 
in the interior ; breeding from the Bay of Fundy and North Dakota 
northwards ; south in winter to the Gulf coast. 
In Colorado this Cormorant can only be regarded as a straggler 
in, the fall migration ; there are about four definite records, all from 
the neighbourhood of Denver in the fall between 1885 and 1891, given 
by H. G. Smith, and others by Felger. Aiken informs me that he 
has examined a few examples killed near Colorado Springs. 
Habits—Cormorants are generally found about the 
sea coast, and this species is the only one which is widely 
distributed in the interior parts of North America. They 
are expert fishers and swim and dive with great ease ; 
they seize their prey in their powerful bills under water, 
and on returning to the surface they toss the fish in the 
air and swallow it head first. When not fishing, much 
of their time is spent sitting and sunning themselves 
on rocks or posts on the beach. They nest in com- 
munities on the rocks or in the cliffs beside the sea, and 
