68 NESTS AND E008 OP 



greenish in color and coated with a chalky substance. Four eggs seem to be the 

 number commonly laid; both male and female assist in the process of incubation, one 

 remaining on the nest or beside it while the other is off on a short fishing excursion.'* 



121. MEXICAN CORMORANT. Plialacrocorax mexicanus (Brandt.) Geog. 

 Dist. — Southern United States, north to the interior of Kansas and Southern Illinois. 



The Mexican Cormorant is a tropical species found on the coasts and inland 

 marshes of Mexico, Yucatan, and Central and South America, where it breeds. It 

 is mentioned by Dr. Merrill as being a common summer resident in Southwestern 

 Texas, in the vicinity of Port Brown, where it doubtless nests in the dense growth 

 of trees and bushes that border most of the lagoons. The breeding habits of this 

 species are similar to those of P. d. floridanus — congregating in large communities 

 and nesting in trees or bushes. In some places along the South American seacoast 

 the bird nests on rocks as well as on shrubbery. The eggs are three or four in num- 

 ber, greenish-white in color, with the ,usual chalky substance on their surface; sizes 

 range from 2.10 to 2.35 long by 1.30 to 1.40 broad. 



122. BRANDT'S CORMORANT. PUalacrocorax penicillatus (Brandt.) Geog. 

 Dist. — Pacific coast of North America, from extremity of Lower California to Wash- 

 ington Territory. 



The most common of the Cormorants breeding on the Farallones. Its habits 

 are the same as those of the other species, but it is of a more sociable disposition, 

 congregating in large communities to breed on the shelving rocks and ridges, ft 

 does not always choose the most inaccessible places for nesting. Like the others, it 

 has great difficulty in constructing its nest, for as fast as it gathers the weeds to- 

 gether, the thieving Western Gulls make away with them. So often are the Cor- 

 morants molested in this manner that they frequently change their place of nesting. 

 An interesting article entitled "A Cormorant Rookery," in The Nidoloffist for June- 

 July, 1894, is by H. R. Taylor. I quote it almost entire: "A Cormorant rookery 

 furnishes the observer with some queer sights. The great, ungainly birds crane their 

 necks this way and that, uneasily and helplessly, fearing to scramble away into 

 flight lest they be robbed of their eggs or young. The latter, however, are not fascin- 

 ating objects, being entirely naked and black as a kid glove. The parent bird will 

 allow the intruder to approach sometimes within five feet before flying, at least such 

 was my experience with the Brants' and the Farallone Cormorant on the Farollone 

 Islands. It would seem that the innate ugliness of the young Cormorant were 

 sufficient guarantee against invasion, but to make their peculiar sort of defence 

 more effective, I have seen Farallon Cormorants, when I came quite near, go into 

 contortions and, disgorge the contents of their gullets. Whether this disgusting 

 performance were a method of defence, as I have suggested, or the result of pure 

 fright, I am not prepared to say. Our Illustrations, showing both old and young 

 birds, is taken from a photograph of a rookery on an islet near Monterey, and is 

 a characteristic picture of the summer home of Brants' and the Farallone Cor- 

 morant. Balrds' Cormorant does not seem to breed so much in colonies, but fashions 

 its compact nest on some slight ledge under a crag, where it is often Inaccessible. 

 The nests become cemented with guano, and do service for more than one year. 

 This Cormorant, on the Farallones, seems to fear that its claim will be "jumped" by 

 some other bird, as It is often found in the nest when no eggs are laid; and If its eggs 



♦ From my article on the eggs of this Cormorant In Forest and Stream, Vol. XXVIII, 

 p. 163. 



