The Farallon Cormorant 



Taken on the Salton Sea 



AN AWKWARD LANDING 



THE NEIGHBOR OF THE UNFORTUNATE BIRD IS USING VERY UNLADYLIKE LANGUAGE 



Photo by the Author 



squirming. Perhaps we are over-fastidious. The squab has no feathers 

 which need plucking or singeing, and as for removing the chicken's head 

 before swallowing, it is a mere human custom, like washing the hands, 

 or saying grace before meat. Ah, that is it! It is the gracelessness of 

 the performance which gets on our nerves. If the gull would only say, 

 "By your leave, gentle cousin," and observe a decent ceremony in lead- 

 ing this lamb to the slaughter, we should quite approve of his action, 

 should we not? 



It will be impossible in our limited space to record all the joys and 

 the sorrows of shagdom; but a brief notice of some of the more prominent 

 nesting colonies may not be amiss. 



The type locality for this subspecies, the Southeast Farallon, while 

 situated about midway of its range, and typical enough as to situation, 



1945 



