The Brandt Cormorant 



The prosperity of this colony was evidenced both by the unusually 

 large average number of eggs per nest — fours and fives being the rule, 

 and sixes not rare — and by the uniformly large size of the eggs. The 

 controlling factor of this prosperity was undoubtedly the abundant food 

 supply. Fish of four or five kinds struggled feebly in the shallow waters 

 or else lined the shore in windrows. Chief among them was a large 

 sucker (probably Catostomus latipinnis of the Colorado River), which 

 would weigh from five to fifteen pounds, and a smaller hump-backed 

 fish (a degenerate form of Xyrauchen cypho?), some six inches long. It 

 was impossible to determine what was causing the demise of these fish, 

 whether the increasing saltiness of the water, or the exertions of the spawn- 

 ing season. Certainly it was not due to any failure in food supply, for the 

 fish were rolling fat. 



The remarkably early nesting may have been induced not only by 

 the movements of the fish, but by the disciplinary experience of the effect 

 upon young squabs of the Colorado Desert sun in, say, April, (equivalent 

 to July anywhere else). The Farallon Cormorant is a prudent bird and 

 very adaptive, and given his quintal of fish is likely to survive to gladden 

 our children's children to the nth generation. 



No. 396 



Brandt's Cormorant 



A. 0. U. No. 122. Phalacrocorax penicillatus (Brandt). 



Synonyms. — Brown Cormorant. Shag. 



Description. — Adults in early nuptial plumage: In general deep lustrous 

 greenish black, changing to lustrous purplish black on head and neck; lighter on scapu- 

 lars and wing-coverts, where feathers exhibit violet-green iridescence and have narrow 

 edgings of the darker green; gular sac dull blue, bordered basally with pale brown 

 (tawny olive) feathers. From each side of the neck springs a loose irregular tuft of 

 stiffish linear white feathers, declined backward and downward two or three inches; 

 similar feathers of twice the width and half the abundance start from the scapulars, 

 and a few others, mere stiffened hairs, are scattered over the lower occipital region. 

 These white adornments disappear with the advance of the nesting season, and the 

 plumage loses much of its luster, especially forward, while the brown feathers bordering 

 the gular area fade to pale buffy (cartridge-buff). Immature: General color dark 

 brown, darkest and greenish lustrous on head and neck and posteriorly all around, 

 lightening to pale fawn or buffy brown on breast and border of gular area; feathers of back, 

 scapulars, and wing-coverts glossy greenish dusky with darker borders and pale brown 

 edgings. Young (ist juvenal): Like immature, but much darker; color of upperparts 

 more definitely greenish lustrous; rump and sides dark-bottle green. Downy young: 

 Sooty brown, sprinkled on belly and wings with white. Size variable — length varies 

 by six inches; length (av. of io Monterey specimens): 749 (29.49); wing 293 (11.54); 

 bill 70.4 (2.77); tarsus 65 (2.56). 



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