LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 265 



Mr. H. H. Bailey (1906) saw numbers of cormorants which he 

 took to be of this species fishing near the surf on the west coast of 

 Mexico. Mr. C. William Beebe (1905) says that " their food in the 

 barrancas is partly vegetable, not exclusively fish." What we know 

 about the behavior and voice of the species is included in the above 

 quotations and I regret that I can add nothing more to its life his- 

 tory. There seems to be no fall migration and its winter home and 

 habits are probably the same as at other seasons. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding ran^e.— Tropical North and Central America. North 

 to northwestern Mexico (Guaymas), southeastern Texas (Browns- 

 ville), southern Louisiana (Lake Arthur), Cuba, Isle of Pines, and 

 Bahamas (Watling Island). South to Nicaragua. South Ameri- 

 can birds are subspecificajly diktinCt. 



Winter range. — Eesident throughout its breeding range. 



Casual records. — ^Has wandered north to Colorado (near Denver, 

 October 15, 1899) ; Kansas (Lawrence, April 2, 1872) ; and southern 

 Illinois (near Cairo, spring 1879). 



Egg dates. — Texas: Eighteen records, February 8, October 12 

 and 16. Mexico : Four records. May 10, 12, and 20 and December 

 25. Louisiana: Three records. May 29. 



PHALACROCOKAX PENICILLATUS (Brandt). 

 BRANDT CORMORANT. 



HABITS. 



This large, heavy, well-marked species is perhaps the best known, 

 the most abundant, and the most characteristic cormorant of our 

 Pacific coast, being found in all suitable localities from southern 

 Alaska to Lower California. It is mainly a resident throughout its 

 range, where its heavy, lumbering form is a familiar figure on the 

 coast at all seasons, sitting for hours on any convenient perch over the 

 water in lazy indolence, congregating in large numbers in its favorite 

 roosting places on outlying rocks or gathering in great black rafts on 

 the water where fishing conditions are favorable. 



Nesting. — For breeding purposes it congregates into large colonies 

 on rocky islands or on the more inaccessible rocky cliffs of the main- 

 land, where it is beyond the reach of marauding enemies, except its 

 most persistent and most successful foe, the western gull. While cruis- 

 ing among the Santa Barbara Islands we found many a large breed- 

 ing colony of Brandt cormorants, visible many miles distant as a con- 

 spicuous, whitewashed space on some prominent rocky slope or prom- 

 ontory; as we drew near we could see that the white surface was 



